Maureen > Recent Status Updates

"It was a reef on which he had run aground as do any who are not trained at an early age for life's hard struggle, who see existence through a rosy cloud, fail to learn the necessary guile and resilience, or have not acquired special skills or particular abilities of the determination or energy to fight: anyone who has not had a weapon or a tool thrust in his hand."

i haven't read through any reviews yet, but i'm wondering if anybody else saw parallels with ebenezer lepage when reading jayber crow. i mean, aside from the obvious old man looking back on his life stuff. so far it's very pleasant but it isn't having the deep emotional impact ebenezer had on me... but there's still time!

: "oh lord i'm so happy with this pile of books i bought at the victoria college book sale. i *may* have just kissed the first edition stress of her regard. but there's cabell (i now have 3 copies of jurgen!!!) and the only brautigan novel i hadn't read (sombrero fallout) and elizabeth jane howard (dedicated to aickman) and so many other exciting books here, i am petting them all, and smiling so hard. :)"

and it looks like the last great slump might be over. cautiously optimistic but i think i'm baby-stepping back! retaining memories of things i read is such an amazing thing. :)

i just received "city of bohane" by kevin barry in the mail from a mysterious benefactor. i wonder if it is my friend richard? it's an irish author which might have tipped his hand! :)

jimmy's collecting your top ten books for 2013. feel free to come share yours: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

the amazing emily carroll has come up with another creepy comic this halloween: http://www.emcarroll.com/comics/skin/

how do you like them apples, amazon? http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworsta...

apparently, noel gallagher hates novels. laughing so hard in this GQ icon interview http://tiny.cc/95q44w
NG: "Hey. I know you write books and all that shit. I'm just saying. The winner of the Pulitzer Prize [for fiction]. What a c***. Whoever that is, has got to be. I don't get it. Book sellers, book readers, book writers, book owners - f*** all of them."
Interviewer: "Book owners?"
NG: "Yeah. And I own books!"

have set up a booklikes.com spot in case i need to pack up and move: http://modusa.booklikes.com/

It was the dawn of the superlative age and the vogue of the emphasized adjective; the word 'darling' rose too easily to the lips, and 'marvellous', 'wonderful', and 'divine' described the colour of a new lipstick or the texture of a silk stocking.

For the first time she was vaguely perceiving that life is everlasting movement. Youth really believes what is running water to be a permanent crystallization and sees time fixed to a point:... [u]ntil this moment, Alice had no conviction that there was a universe before she came into it. She had always thought of it as the background of herself: the moon was something to make her prettier on a summer night.

this weekend is victoria's college big used book sale. i will probably go (again) on sunday. they have a large supply of canadian novels so if any of my friends urgently requires some margaret laurence for example, just let me know and i will see if they have it!

"...there is nothing in life which possession does not discover to be inadequate: we are cursed with a tyrannous need for what life does not afford; and we strive for various prizes, saying,'Happiness is there,' when in point of fact it is nowhere.

"...there is nothing in life which possession does not discover to be inadequate: we are cursed with a tyrannous need for what life does not afford; and we strive for various prizes, saying,'Happiness is there,' when in point of fact it is nowhere.

"I seek for a mate, and I find only meat and much talking." - cabell, you bittersweet bastard. i love you.

sort of dreading coming to the end of this. how nice to hang out with nicholson baker, which is essentially the experience of the novel even if the protagonist is paul chowder, poet, now pop musician. :)

another testament to how awesome the goodreads community is arrived through the mail.. today my favourite goodreader is simon! thanks so much for sending me these james branch cabell books. i'm sorry you were allergic but happy to provide them a good home. so happy that i laid them on my bed and rolled on them so i could say i was rolling in james branch cabell books and have it be true. :)

freaking out because i can't find my copy of revenge of the lawn and i couldn't have possibly given it away could i? i really hope i didn't give it away. also. time to reorganize the stacks. gah!!!!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So it was with all the persons he encountered. The people whom he loved when at his best as a fine hoping fellow were so very soon, and through petty causes, to become nothing to him, and he himself was to be converted into common tradesman. And living seemed to Jurgen a wasteful and inequitable process.

you know how i get really crazy about a book and start it over again right after i've finished it? yep. me & jurgen sitting in a tree.

rocking my socks so much that i forgot a bag of groceries on the subway... ! the writing is taking me far from this world and the art by frank c. papé is really gorgeous. might scan some pages for my review...

i noticed somebody just tweeted about this book, and then i remembered i've been reading this for a couple of months now but keep misplacing it. forgettance of things present?

revising theories now i think rachel echoes rebecca *and* maxim and philip nameless...

i'm at the point where she breaks the china cupid and i can't believe what a stupid girl she is...

hi march rebecca and my cousin rachel readers! i've made a link to a discussion thread here on the fiction files: http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/1... this is my home group and i think most people who are chatting are already members. feel free to opt out after conversation is over. :)

at this point i start squeaking, "ah! no! get away!" on the subway. yes, i have seen the movie. but i haven't read the book before so i don't know it will end the same way, right?

hey lovely people who said they'd read rebecca and my cousin rachel in march with me! are you still up for it? if so, should we start mid-march? say the 10th? if anybody else wants to join in, let me know! i will also follow up again with individuals since i don't know if people will see this. :)