100 books
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118 voters
“There were some books that reached through the noise of life to grab you by the collar and speak only of the truest things. A Confession was a book like that. In it, Tolstoy related a Russian fable about a man who, being chased by a monster, jumps into a well. As the man is falling down the well, however, he sees there's a dragon at the bottom, waiting to eat him. Right then, the man notices a branch sticking out of the wall, and he grabs on to it, and hangs. This keeps the man from falling into the dragon's jaws, or being eaten by the monster above, but it turns out there's another little problem. Two mice, one black and one white, are scurrying around and around the branch, nibbling it. It's only a matter of time before they will chew through the branch, causing the man to fall. As the man contemplates his inescapable fate, he notices something else: from the end of the branch he's holding, a few drops of honey are dripping. The man sticks out his tongue to lick them. This, Tolstoy says, is our human predicament: we're the man clutching the branch. Death awaits us. There is no escape. And so we distract ourselves by licking whatever drops of honey come within our reach.”
― The Marriage Plot
― The Marriage Plot
“Later when I thought of the chickens, one of those rare pale blue eggs rose up into my throat. The chickens had been part of our family, and the egg in my throat was the feeling of something missing. It was hard and smooth and heavy, but also so fragile it might break and make me cry. It was the feeling of growing out of a favorite shirt, milk spilled on the floor, the last bit of honey in the jar, falling apple blossoms. It was the lump in the throat behind everything beautiful in life.”
― This Life Is in Your Hands: One Dream, Sixty Acres, and a Family Undone
― This Life Is in Your Hands: One Dream, Sixty Acres, and a Family Undone
“There’s nothing as unstoppable as a freight train full of fuck-yeah.”
― You Are a Badass®: How to Stop Doubting Your Greatness and Start Living an Awesome Life
― You Are a Badass®: How to Stop Doubting Your Greatness and Start Living an Awesome Life
“When I pronounce the word Future,
the first syllable already belongs to the past.
When I pronounce the word Silence,
I destroy it.”
― Poems New and Collected
the first syllable already belongs to the past.
When I pronounce the word Silence,
I destroy it.”
― Poems New and Collected
“The Human Condition being, basically, that we’re alive and have access to beauty, can even erratically create it, but will someday be dead and will not.”
― The Art of Fielding
― The Art of Fielding
Melana’s 2025 Year in Books
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