My first memory of reading was in kindergarten. Miss Dean would ask me to continue for her when she was called out of class during storytime. I could read upside down just like she did, but she did not encourage my showiness.

My parents owned a full set of encyclopedias, a 2-book dictionary, and a thesaurus. Whenever one of my 8 siblings or I would ask Mother what a word meant, her standard reply was "Look it up in the dictionary." We also owned a 10-book collection of science, history, literature, etc., aimed at YAs. I introduced myself to Dickens, Dostoyevsky, and Socrates before my tenth birthday. (I couldn't pronounce the names in The Iliad, so I kept a list of substituted names instead. Children are resourceful.)

I stopped reading for pleasure when required reading began to dominate my life, then picked it back up 10 or so years after college. One day, I was surfing the 'net for bookish sites and came across Bookcrossing. Here I have been ever since.



becca's bookish quotes
(gathered across the years from books she's read)


Adversity is like a strong wind. I don't mean just that it holds us back from places we might otherwise go. It also tears away from us all but the things that cannot be torn, so that afterward we see ourselves as we really are, and not merely as we might like to be. ~Arthur Golden, *Memoirs of a Geisha*

I feel that books, just like people, have a destiny. Some invite sorrow, others joy, some both. ~Elie Weisel, *Night*

For in the end, it is all about memory, its source and its magnitude, and, of course, its consequences. ~Elie Weisel, *Night*

For the survivor who chooses to testify, it is clear; his duty is to bear witness for the dead and for the living. He has no right to deprive future generations of a past that belongs to our collective memory. To forget would be not only dangerous but offensive; to forget the dead would be akin to killing them a second time. ~Elie Weisel, *Night*

Do what you want, do what you will, do what you have to, do what you think you cannot. ~Alice Hoffman, *Here on Earth*

Noble deeds and hot baths are the best cures for depression. ~ Dodie Smith, *I Capture the Castle*

Some books are to be tasted, others are to be swallowed, and some few are to be chewed and digested. ~Francis Bacon

There is no limit to desire but desire's needs. ~Grendel's Law by John Gardner, *Grendel*

"So I am finally going mad," she thought, "like everybody else. What a nuisance. Though I suppose it will be a change." ~Margaret Atwood, *The Edible Woman*

Live today for memory tomorrow and pleasure now. Always. ~Kaye Gibbons, *On the Occasion of my Last Afternoon*

I watched the sun go down over Austin, realizing it had never once snowed in all my time here, not in April, not even in midwinter. I've almost forgotten what it feels like to crawl into a bed so cold, you wished there were someone else in it. Texas is so hot, it helps you believe you're better off sleeping alone. ~Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason, *The Rule of Four*

Only a man who sees giants can ever stand upon their shoulders. ~Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason, *The Rule of Four*

When daughters are on the way from home, be it for the afternoon or a lifetime, a loving mother will disguise her agony with trifles. ~Kaye Gibbons, *On the Occasion of my Last Afternoon*

[P]overty is a fortress without drawbridges. ~Albert Camus, *The First Man*

Victoria's Secret always makes me feel as if I am an imposter. ~Claire Cook, *Must Love Dogs*

"Honey, life can be a ballroom dance," my mother counseled me, "and it can be full of shit. Your job in both cases is to watch where you step." ~Lorna Landvik, *Patty Jane's House of Curl*

"My stars," said Ione, her voice a soft, girlish whisper, "my dreams have come true and I'm scared I won't know what to do with them." ~Lorna Landvik, *Patty Jane's House of Curl*

Therefore, never supplicate. Appreciate.
Fear holds close, love holds dear. ~ Neale Donald Walsch, *Conversations with God, Part 1*

If you cannot appreciate your five senses, then your life isn't worth five cents. ~*The Bells of St Mary's*

[L]ife is like an expensive restaurant where, sooner or later, someone always hands you the bill, which is not to say that you should deny the joy and pleasure afforded by the dishes already eaten. ~Arturo Perez-Reverte, *The Flanders Panel

Your absence has gone through me
Like a thread through a needle.
Everything I do is stitched with its color.
~ W.S. Merwin, "Separation"*

Poetry is a form of communication between incomplete strangers that makes one a little more complete and, thus, a little less of a stranger. ~author unknown to me

"He got what he wanted and lost what he had." ~Little Richard, quoted by David Rosen, *The Tao of Elvis*