Chuck Bunting

“Nabokov famously said that reality was “one of the few words which mean nothing without quotes,” and this was an idea that kept visiting, bringing me comfort and bliss at a time when my mind was desperate for both.”
― Daniel Handler, And Then? And Then? What Else?

“of which had attracted my interest for some brief period of time and then never again until someone suggested I throw one of them away, when each became the dearest thing in the world to me.”
― Daniel Handler, And Then? And Then? What Else?

“Fascination with the Nile had grown not only because it is the longest river in the world, with a basin that spans more than a million square miles, one tenth of the African continent, but because it has made possible one of the oldest and richest continuous civilizations on earth. The fertile green swath of the Nile floodplain covers less than 5 percent of Egypt but is home to more than 96 percent of its population. The rest of the land is desert. So vital are the river’s annual floods that ancient Egyptians based their calendars on them, starting each new year with the first day of the floods.”
― Candice Millard, River of the Gods: Genius, Courage, and Betrayal in the Search for the Source of the Nile

“The rulers of the Nile Valley and their hard-pressed subjects succeeded in creating a uniquely powerful culture, one that has fascinated and bewitched all who have come into contact with it—from Alexander the Great to Agatha Christie.”
― Toby Wilkinson, The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt