I don't expect to finish all of these this year-had we but world enough, and time, etc.-but it's good to have choices.

* The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay (656) by Michael Chabon

* The Golden Compass (416) by Philip Pullman

* Ada, or Ardor (589) by Vladimir Nabokov

* Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (who knows?) by J.K. Rowling ( Read more... )

America was never innocent. We popped our cherry on the boat over and looked back with no regrets. You can't ascribe our fall from grace to any single event or set of circumstances. You can't lose what you lacked at conception ( Read more... )

PLAYER: (Confidingly.) Now for a handful of guilders I happen to have a private and uncut performance of The Rape of the Sabine Women-or rather woman, or rather Alfred-(Over his shoulder.) Get your skirt on, Alfred-

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It wasn't the disillusionment that forced itself on him now. There were his memories of the conversation, and then something beyond-what had been said, and then what he would like to have said to Vernon now that he had had hours to reflect. It was a remembering, and it was also fantasizing: he imagined a drama in which he gave himself all the best ( Read more... )

"He acts like he's got everything ( Read more... )

my sweet old etcetera ( Read more... )

22. Lolita (317 pages) by Vladimir Nabokov (the annotated edition)
10/12: Lolita has dethroned The Great Gatsby to become my favorite novel, and I give it my highest recommendation (for what that's worth). Having a good dictionary handy is not optional, but the book rewards tenfold any effort it requires ( Read more... )

For more than an hour, Leigh-Cheri stared into the mandala of the sky. "Does the moon have a purpose?" she inquired of Prince Charming ( Read more... )

HENRY: Dignified cuckoldry is a difficult trick, but it can be done. Think of it as modern marriage. We have got beyond hypocrisy, you and I. Exclusive rights isn't love, it's colonization.

ANNIE: Stop it-please stop it.
(Pause)

HENRY: The trouble is, I can't find a part of myself where you're not important. I write in order to be worth your ( Read more... )

Mrs Pearce. Well, don't you want to be clean and sweet and decent, like a lady? You know you cant be a nice girl inside if youre a dirty slut outside.

-Act II

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Liza. You see, really and truly, apart from the things anyone can pick up (the dressing and the proper way of speaking, and so on), the difference between a lady and a flower girl is ( Read more... )