The Gift Of The Magi – O. Henry

One dollar and eighty-seven cents. That was all. And sixty cents of it was in pennies. Pennies saved one and two at a time by bulldozing the grocer and the vegetable man and the butcher until one’s cheeks burned with the silent imputation of parsimony that such close dealing implied. Three times Della counted it. [...]

The Necklace – Guy de Maupassant

She was one of those pretty and charming girls born, as though fate had blundered over her, into a family of artisans. She had no marriage portion, no expectations, no means of getting known, understood, loved, and wedded by a man of wealth and distinction; and she let herself be married off to a little [...]

Night Owl

What’s the latest you’ve ever stayed up reading a book? Is staying up late reading a usual thing for you? I hardly read in the evening, let alone pulling an all nighter to do so. A habitual early bird since the days of college, I am the least of an owl. Instead I wake up [...]

[391] As I Lay Dying – William Faulkner

” I can remember how when I was young I believed death to be a phenomenon of the body; now I know it to be merely a function of the mind—and that of the minds of the ones who suffer the bereavement. The nihilists say it is the end; the fundamentalists, the beginning; when in [...]

Unforgettable Enders

This post is an extension from my Facebook status on novel closing lines. The Stylist UK runs a poll for favorite ending lines. I am trying to compile a list of my favorite enders off the top of my head when I posted my status. Upon consultation with the texts, here is the full list: [...]

An Affair, A Fetish

Do you need to have your owned books out where you can see them, or are you okay with them being stored away? An integral part of a reader’s life is the collection itself. If space is not a constraint, I prefer my books to be shelved neatly in the living room for the whole [...]

[390] In Cold Blood – Truman Capote

” I’d been too dazed, too numb, to feel the full viciousness of it. The suffering. The horror. They were dead. A whole family. Gentle, kindly people, people I know—murdered. You had to believe it, because it was really true. ” (I, 66) In Cold Blood is a true account of a multiple murder and [...]

In Cold Blood Audio

In Cold Blood is my first audiobook. I’m reading the book and listening to audio at the same time. The audio especially makes my blood run cold as Scott brick, the narrator, keeps up with Capote’s storytelling every step of the way. I listened to the first CD during the drive on a backroad to [...]

[389] The Post-Office Girl – Stefan Zweig

” In this instant, shaken to her very depths, this ecstatic human being has a first inkling that the soul is made of stuff so mysteriously elastic that a was found among Zweig’s paperssingle event can make it big enough to contain the infinite. ” (I 66) The manuscript of The Post-Office Girl was found [...]

Repeats, Encore

What’s the first book that you ever read more than once? (I’m assuming there’s at least one.) What book have you read the most times? And–how many? Long-time readers of the blog would know the answer right away: The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov. I have read the different translations of the book at [...]