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alienejj · 2 days

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thrifted and annotated copy of 'to the lighthouse' by virginia woolf.

so lovely, buying a book at the second-hand store and finding someone's annotations between the pages.

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alienejj · 2 months

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"Knowing you have something good to read before bed is among the most pleasurable of sensations"

— Vladimir Nabokov.

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alienejj · 2 months

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“Read, read, read. Read everything -- trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You'll absorb it.”

— William Faulkner.

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alienejj · 1 month

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“When you reread a classic, you do not see more in the book than you did before; you see more in you than there was before.”

― Cliff Fadiman

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alienejj · 3 months

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“I think we ought to read only the kind of books that wound or stab us. If the book we're reading doesn't wake us up with a blow to the head, what are we reading for?"

— Franz Kafka.

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alienejj · 29 days

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thrifted bookish finds 27/feb/24

My Antonia by Willa Cather. As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner. North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell. To The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf. Frankenstein; the 1818 text by Mary Shelley. The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco.

the white oxford editions of classics are such a treat to find out in the wild. these three books specifically came annotated so i'm excited to post the annotation of the previous owner.

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alienejj · 2 months

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reading nook & current reads 29/feb/24

behold, the cosy reading nook ft an energy drink.

i haven't been doing well mentally for a (long) while so i only have the mental capacity and attention span for easy-to-read books. right now im able to stomach:

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

An Unsuitable Job For A Woman by P. D. James (a detective novel).

Sailing To Byzantium by W. B. Yeats (a short poetry anthology).

all three books were thrifted across the second-hand stores of Dublin.

my interest in fantasy schools/magical school books has been piqued so im currently looking for recs. i know about the Harry Potter series, the Scholomancer trilogy, book one of the Poppy Wars trilogy, and Aurian but aside from those im stumped. pls share your book recs :(

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alienejj · 2 months

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“There is no greater mistake in life than seeing things or hearing them at the wrong time. Shakespeare is ruined for most people by having been made to learn it at school; you should see Shakespeare as it was written to be seen, played on the stage. There you can appreciate it quite young, long before you take in the beauty of the words and of the poetry.”

― by Agatha Christie from Agatha Christie: An Autobiography

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alienejj · 2 months

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thrifted & annotated copy of 'frankenstein' by mary shelley

whoever had bought this copy ended up dog earing it like a third of the way through so this was all the annotating/underlining they did. such a treat to open up a thrifted book and see the thoughts and words of another reader. It's incredibly endearing and makes me look forward to reading the book purely so I can look through their notes and compare my opinions and thoughts on the passages against theirs.

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alienejj · 3 months

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“Fantasy is escapist, and that is its glory. If a soldier is imprisoned by the enemy, don't we consider it his duty to escape?. . .If we value the freedom of mind and soul, if we're partisans of liberty, then it's our plain duty to escape, and to take as many people with us as we can!”

― J.R.R. Tolkien

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alienejj · 3 months

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"There are perhaps no days of our childhood we lived so fully as those we spent with a favorite book."

— Marcel Proust.

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alienejj · 3 months

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"The books I loved in childhood - the first loves - I've read so often that I've internalized them in some really essential way: they are more inside me now than out."

— Donna Tartt.

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alienejj · 2 months

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“I believe that reading and writing are the most nourishing forms of meditation anyone has so far found. By reading the writings of the most interesting minds in history, we meditate with our own minds and theirs as well. This to me is a miracle.”

— Kurt Vonnegut.

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alienejj · 11 days

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thrifted bookish finds 15.apr.24

today's book haul is made up of murder mysteries, irish fiction, contemporary fiction, historical fiction and fantasy.

The Battersea Park Road to Paradise by Isabel Losada - memoir, self help. The Appeal by Janice Hallett - murder mystery, thriller. The Man Who Died Twice by Richard Osman - murder mystery, cozy mystery. The Bookshop on the Shore by Jenny Colgan - romance, chick lit. The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon - historical fiction, dark academia. The Burning Chambers by Kate Mosse - historical fiction, dark academia. The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood - literary fiction, mystery. The Soil by Yi Kwang Su - translated lit, classic lit, Asian lit. Celtic Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs - myths & legends, classic lit. The Oxford Book of Ireland edited by Patricia Craig - Irish lit, anthology of short stories & poetry, classic lit. The Winter Road by Adrian Selby - epic fantasy, dark fantasy. Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James - sci fi, mythology, African lit.

taking the education of irish history and culture into my own hands. I'm still conflicted over my identity as someone with parents from two different countries and cultures while having been born and raised in a third country. time to stop wondering and get educated on the things, people and places that made me.

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alienejj · 3 months

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Some classic Asian literature I own:

Monkey: The Journey to the West by Wu Ch'eng-en, translated by Arthur Waley. The Romance of the Three Kingdoms by Luo Guanzhong, translated by Martin Palmer. Rashomon and Seventeen Other Stories by Ryunosuke Akutagawa, translated by Jay Rubin.

Rashomon and Seventeen Other Stories summary:

A collection of exuberant, imaginitive and sometimes wierd short stories by a man who's work continues to influence modern day authors.

Some lovely quotes from Rashomon and Seventeen Other Stories:

“I don't have the strength to keep writing this. To go on living with this feeling is painful beyond description. Isn't there someone kind enough to strangle me in my sleep?” “I have no conscience at all -- least of all an artistic conscience. All I have is nerves.” “Yes -- or rather, it's not so much that I want to die as that I'm tired of living.” “Truly human life is as evanescent as the morning dew or a flash of lightning.” “In a word, tears like this light a modest lamp of human love amid the gathering dusk of human suffering.”

I made another two similar posts, one for Monkey: The Journey to the West and one for The Romance of The Three Kingdoms.

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alienejj · 1 month

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Come, my fine cat, against my loving heart; Sheathe your sharp claws, and settle. And let my eyes into your pupils dart Where agate sparks with metal.

— from The Cat by Roy Campbell.

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