Graham Oliver

https://www.goodreads.com/grahamiam

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Graham is Currently Reading

Graham Oliver is currently reading

A Culinary History of Taipei: Beyond Pork and Ponlai (Big City Food Biographies)

by Katy Hui-Wen Hung

bookshelves: currently-reading, taiwan, subject-nonfic, food

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Mar 02, 2026 03:56PM

“The human louse somewhat resembles a tiny lobster, and he lives chiefly in your trousers. Short of burning all your clothes there is no known way of getting rid of him. Down the seams of your trousers he lays his glittering white eggs, like tiny grains of rice, which hatch out and breed families of thier own at horrible speed. I think pacifists might find it helpful to illustrate thier pamphlets with enlarged photographs of lice. Glory of war indeed! In war all solderies are lousy, at the least when it is warm enough. The men that fought at Verdun, at Waterloo, at Flodden, at Senlac, at Thermopylae - every one of them had lice crawling over his testicles.”
― George Orwell, Homage to Catalonia

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“We are all travelers crossing from this bank to that bank, from this world to nirvana. But the waters are rough. We must rely on something in order to make it over. That something could be the art or literature that you aspire to create. You will think that the thing you choose will serve as your boat or raft to carry you to that other bank. But if you think deeply about it, you may find that it does not carry you but rather you carry it. Perhaps only the student who truly savors this paradox will make it safely across. Literature and art are not simply what will carry you; they are also what you must lay down your life for, what you must labor over and shoulder for the rest of your life.”
― Kyung-Sook Shin, I'll Be Right There

tags: art, literature, meaning-of-life

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