May's Books

For book lovers ;-)

 A CLASH OF KINGS by GEORGE R. R. MARTIM

 January 06, 2014

"The battle fever. [...] How time seemed to blur and slow and even stop, how the past and the future vanished until there was nothing but the instant, how fear fled, and thought fled, and even your body. “You don’t feel your wounds then, or the ache in your back from the weight of the armor, or the sweat running down into your eyes. You stop feeling, you stop thinking, you stop being you, there is only the fight, the foe, this man and then the next and the next and the next, and you know they are afraid and tired but you’re not, you’re alive, and death is all around you but their swords move so slowly, you can dance through them laughing."

 OUTLANDER by DIANA GABALDON  

 January 12, 2014

"I meant it, ye know,” he said softly. “I will protect you. From him, or anyone else. To the last drop of my blood, mo duinne.”
“Mo duinne?” I asked, a little disturbed by the intensity of this speech. I didn’t want to be responsible for any of his blood being spilt, last drop or first.
“It means ‘my brown one.’ ” He raised a lock of hair to his lips and smiled, with a look in his eyes that started all the drops of my own blood chasing each other through my veins. “Mo duinne,” he repeated, softly. “I have been longing to say that to you."

 ELENOR AND PARK by RAINBOW ROWELL

 February 06, 2014

"She was pretty sure she'd thank him for saving her life. Not just yesterday, but, like, practically every day since they'd met. Which made her feel like the dumbest, weakest girl. If you can't save your own life, is it even worth saving?"

 ONE FOOT IN THE GRAVE by JEANIENE FROST

 February 13, 2014

“I’ll never look at your fangs the same way after last night. A part of me wants to apologize for holding you back before, and the other part wants you to apologize to me because you knew better!”
He laughed again. "I still have more to show you, trust me..."

 CHILD 44 by TOM ROB SMITH  

 March 12, 2014

"To stand up for someone was to stitch your fate into the lining of theirs."

 THE ILLUSTRATED MAN by RAY BRADBURY

 July 15, 2014

"We're all fools," said Clemens, "all the time. It's just we're a different kind each day. We think, I'm not a fool today. I've learned my lesson. I was a fool yesterday but not this morning. Then tomorrow we find out that, yes, we were a fool today too. I think the only way we can grow and get on in this world is to accept the fact we're not perfect and live accordingly."

 ARISTOTLE AND DANTE DISCOVER THE SECRETS OF THE UNIVERSE by BENJAMIN ALIRE SAENZ

 July 29, 2014

"I wanted to tell them that I'd never had a friend, not ever, not a real one. Until Dante. I wanted to tell them that I never knew that people like Dante existed in the world, people who looked at the stars, and knew the mysteries of water, and knew enough to know that birds belonged to the heavens and weren't meant to be shot down from their graceful flights by mean and stupid boys. I wanted to tell them that he had changed my life and that I would never be the same, not ever. And that somehow it felt like it was Dante who had saved my life and not the other way around. I wanted to tell them that he was the first human being aside from my mother who had ever made me want to talk about the things that scared me. I wanted to tell them so many things and yet I didn't have the words. So I just stupidly repeated myself. "Dante's my friend.”

 THE BRONZE HORSEMAN by PAULLINA SIMONS

 September 12, 2014 

"A bus came. The soldier turned away from her and walked toward it. Tatiana watched him. Even his walk was from another world; the step was too sure, the stride too long, yet somehow it all seemed right, looked right, felt right. It was like stumbling on a book you thought you had lost. Ah, yes, there it is."

 THE BOOK THIEF by MARKUS ZUSAK

 October 02, 2014 

"I wanted to tell the book thief many things, about beauty and brutality. But what could I tell her about those things that she didn't already know? I wanted to explain that I am constantly overestimating and underestimating the human race-that rarely do I ever simply estimate it. I wanted to ask her how the same thing could be so ugly and so glorious, and its words and stories so damning and brilliant."

 AMERICAN GODS by NEIL GAIMAN

 December 31, 2014 

"People believe, thought Shadow. It's what people do. They believe, and then they do not take responsibility for their beliefs; they conjure things, and do not trust the conjuration. People populate the darkness; with ghost, with gods, with electrons, with tales. People imagine, and people believe; and it is that rock solid belief, that makes things happen."

Reading progress update: I've read 7 out of 480 pages.

"Now that's a good card," Joan remarks, "La Roue de Fortune."

I hold it out to show it to her. "It is the Wheel of Fortune that can throw you up very high, or bring you down very low. Its message is to be indifferent to victory and defeat, as they both come on the turn of the wheel."

The Lady of the River

Philippa Gregory

My first Philippa Gregory's book.

I'm very excited!

Reading progress update: I've read 134 out of 550 pages.

"Jesus, Mary..."

She said it out loud, the words distributed into a room that was full of cold air and books. Books everywhere! Each wall was armed with overcrowded yet immaculate shelving. It was barely possible to see the paintwork. There were all different styles and sizes of lettering on the spines of the black, the red, the gray, the every-colored books. It was one of the most beautiful things Liesel Meminger had ever seen.

With wonder, she smiled.

That such a room existed!"

The Book Thief

Markus Zusak

Reading progress update: I've read 57%.

"I pushed his hand off with a throaty laugh.

"You're having a hard time being obedient, aren't you? If you don't behave, I won't do what I intended, and trust me, you'll wish I had."

That wicked curl was back on his mouth even as he dropped his arm.

"My sincerest apologies, mistress, for my shameful disobedience. If you pray continue, I vow my complete submission."

Smart ass."

This Side of the Grave

Jeaniene Frost

Cat & Bones! I missed you!

Reading progress update: I've read 80 out of 181 pages.

“There was a smell of Time in the air tonight. He smiled and turned the fancy in his mind. There was a thought. What did Time smell like? Like dust and clocks and people. And if you wondered what Time sounded like it sounded like water running in a dark cave and voices crying and dirt dropping down upon hollow box lids, and rain. And, going further, what did Time look like? Time looked like snow dropping silently into a black room or it looked like a silent film in an ancient theater, one hundred billion faces falling like those New Year balloons, down and down into nothing. That was how Time smelled and looked and sounded. And tonight - Tomas shoved a hand into the wind outside the truck - tonight you could almost touch Time.”

The Martian Chronicles

Ray Bradbury

Reading progress update: I've read 139 out of 276 pages.

"You liked the idea of space travel? Going places?"

"I don't know. Yes. No. It wasn't going places. It was being between." [...] "Mostly it was space. So much space. I liked the idea of nothing on top, nothing on the bottom, and a lot of nothing in between, and me in the middle of the nothing."

"I never heard it put that way before."

No Particular Night or Morning

The Illustrated Man

Ray Bradbury

I can't believe I never heard of this book before. It's amazing!

Reading progress update: I've read 108 out of 213 pages.

"It would be good to know, [...] whether such a thing as friendship actually exists. [...] Sometimes I almost believe it is the most powerful bond in life and consequently the rarest. [...] Friendship, of course, is quite different from the affairs of those driven by morbid impulses to satisfy themselves in some fashion with others of the same sex. The eros of friendship has no need of the body... [...] I have seen sympathy build between people, but it has always foundered in a morass of vanity and egoism. Sometimes camaraderie and fellowship look like friendship; common interests can bring about relationships akin to friendship, and in an attempt to escape loneliness, people are only too happy to involve themselves in confidences that they will later regret, but that temporarily may appear to be a variety of friendship. None of this is genuine. It is far more the case [...] that friendship is a duty."

Embers

Sándor Márai

This book is great!

This seems fun! 

Thank you Book lovers never go to bed alone for tagging me. ;-)

1. What was the last book you marked as 'Read'?

Behind His Eyes - Truth by Aleatha Romig.

2. What are you 'Currently Reading'?

REVEALED: The Missing Years by Aleatha Romig.

3. What was the last book you marked as 'To-Read'?

Dirty Angel by Karina Halle.

4. What book do you plan to read next?

I have no idea. Lately it's been hard to choose what to read next - I have a huge to-read list and every book looks boring.

5. Do you use the star rating system?

Yes! However, my rating system is not very fair. Whenever I'm feeling generous I give a book more stars than it deserves and vice verse.

6. Are you doing a 2014 reading challenge?

Yes! And I'm 36 books behind schedule! I blame my busy real life (and my laziness, to be fair).

7. Do you have a wishlist?

No. I buy whatever I want to read next. 

8. What book do you want to buy next?

Probably, Dirty Angel by Karina Halle. I look forward to read this book since The Artist Trilogy. But, who knows.... my preferences are unstable.

9. Do you have any favorite quotes? Would you like to share a few?
 

I love collecting book quotes! Some of my all time favorites are:

“The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid.”  Jane Austen

“That was a memorable day to me, for it made great changes in me. But it is the same with any life. Imagine one selected day struck out of it, and think how different its course would have been. Pause you who read this, and think for a moment of the long chain of iron or gold, of thorns or flowers, that would never have bound you, but for the formation of the first link on one memorable day.” Charles Dickens

“Dumbledore watched her fly away, and as her silvery glow faded he turned back to Snape, and his eyes were full of tears.

"After all this time?"

"Always," said Snape.” J. K. Rowling

10. Who are your favorite authors?

Charles Dickens, Charlotte Bronte, Diana Gabaldon, Emile Bronte, George R. R. Martin, Jane Austen, J.  K. Rowling, Kristen Ashley, Karina Halle, Oscar Wilde, and the list go on...

11. Have you joined any groups?

No. I wish I had more time to pay attention to them.

12. Are there any questions you'd like to add to this tag?

Not really.

Steve McCurry's photographs

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