“I think we ought to read only the kind of books that wound or stab us. If the book we're reading doesn't wake us up with a blow to the head, what are we reading for? So that it will make us happy, as you write? Good Lord, we would be happy precisely if we had no books, and the kind of books that make us happy are the kind we could write ourselves if we had to. But we need books that affect us like a disaster, that grieve us deeply, like the death of someone we loved more than ourselves, like being banished into forests far from everyone, like a suicide. A book must be the axe for the frozen sea within us. That is my belief.”
―
―
“I have spent all my life resisting the desire to end it.”
― Letters to Milena
― Letters to Milena
“I cannot make you understand. I cannot make anyone understand what is happening inside me. I cannot even explain it to myself.”
― The Metamorphosis
― The Metamorphosis
“Above all, don't lie to yourself. The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. And having no respect he ceases to love.”
― The Brothers Karamazov
― The Brothers Karamazov
Khadijah’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Khadijah’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
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