“I saw my life branching out before me like the green fig tree in the story. From the tip of every branch, like a fat purple fig, a wonderful future beckoned and winked. One fig was a husband and a happy home and children, and another fig was a famous poet and another fig was a brilliant professor, and another fig was Ee Gee, the amazing editor, and another fig was Europe and Africa and South America, and another fig was Constantin and Socrates and Attila and a pack of other lovers with queer names and offbeat professions, and another fig was an Olympic lady crew champion, and beyond and above these figs were many more figs I couldn't quite make out. I saw myself sitting in the crotch of this fig tree, starving to death, just because I couldn't make up my mind which of the figs I would choose. I wanted each and every one of them, but choosing one meant losing all the rest, and, as I sat there, unable to decide, the figs began to wrinkle and go black, and, one by one, they plopped to the ground at my feet.”
― The Bell Jar
― The Bell Jar
“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
“Do I contradict myself?
Very well then I contradict myself,
(I am large, I contain multitudes.)”
― Leaves of Grass
Very well then I contradict myself,
(I am large, I contain multitudes.)”
― Leaves of Grass
“Moments of their secret life together burst like stars upon his memory.”
― The Dead
― The Dead
“Why is it that words like these seem dull and cold? Is it because there is no word tender enough to be your name?”
― The Dead
― The Dead
Catching up on Classics (and lots more!)
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The world is made up of two kinds of people: first, those who love classics, and second, those who have not yet read a classic. Be bold and join us as ...more
EVERYONE Has Read This but Me - The Catch-Up Book Club
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21st Century Literature
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ron’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at ron’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
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