“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
“the best kind of laughter is laughter born of a shared memory.”
― Why Not Me?
― Why Not Me?
“Really, all religious teachings can be boiled down to: “Just be cool. Don’t be an asshole.”
― Paddle Your Own Canoe: One Man's Principles for Delicious Living
― Paddle Your Own Canoe: One Man's Principles for Delicious Living
“You are the gull, Jo, strong and wild, fond of the storm and the wind, flying far out to sea, and happy all alone.”
― Little Women
― Little Women
“Nostalgia in reverse, the longing for yet another strange land, grew especially strong in spring.”
― Mary
― Mary
Riley’s 2025 Year in Books
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