618 books
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214 voters
“أذل الحياة وكره الممات ... وكلا أراه طعاماً وبيلا
فإن لم يكن غير إحداهما ... فسير إلى الموت سيراً جميلا”
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فإن لم يكن غير إحداهما ... فسير إلى الموت سيراً جميلا”
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“بنفسكَ صادِم كلّ أمرٍ تريدُه .. فليسَ مضاءُ السيفِ إلا بحدّه
و عزمَك جرّد عندَ كلّ مهمّةٍ .. فما نافعٌ مُكثُ الحسامِ بغمده”
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و عزمَك جرّد عندَ كلّ مهمّةٍ .. فما نافعٌ مُكثُ الحسامِ بغمده”
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“وللحريّة الحمراء بابٌ...بكلِّ يَدٍ مضَرَّجَةٍ يُدقُّ”
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“It seems a simple task. We all know what water looks like, feels like in our mouth. Water is ubiquitous. Describing a cup of water feels a little like doing a still life painting. As a child I used to wonder: Why do people spend so much time painting bowls of fruit, when they could be painting dragons? Why learn to describe a cup of water, when the story is about cool magic and (well) dragons?
It’s a thing I had trouble with as a teenage writer—I’d try to rush through the “boring” parts to get to the interesting parts, instead of learning how to make the boring parts into the interesting parts. And a cup of water is vital to this. Robert Jordan showed me that a cup of water can be a cultural dividing line–the difference between someone who grew up between two rivers, and someone who’d never seen a river before a few weeks ago.
A cup of water can be an offhand show of wealth, in the shape of an ornamented cup. It can be a mark of traveling hard, with nothing better to drink. It can be a symbol of better times, when you had something clean and pure. A cup of water isn’t just a cup of water, it’s a means of expressing character. Because stories aren’t about cups of water, or even magic and dragons. They’re about the people painted, illuminated, and changed by magic and dragons.”
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It’s a thing I had trouble with as a teenage writer—I’d try to rush through the “boring” parts to get to the interesting parts, instead of learning how to make the boring parts into the interesting parts. And a cup of water is vital to this. Robert Jordan showed me that a cup of water can be a cultural dividing line–the difference between someone who grew up between two rivers, and someone who’d never seen a river before a few weeks ago.
A cup of water can be an offhand show of wealth, in the shape of an ornamented cup. It can be a mark of traveling hard, with nothing better to drink. It can be a symbol of better times, when you had something clean and pure. A cup of water isn’t just a cup of water, it’s a means of expressing character. Because stories aren’t about cups of water, or even magic and dragons. They’re about the people painted, illuminated, and changed by magic and dragons.”
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Amir’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Amir’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
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