Books, on Books

On poetry, from The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows - It was called Selections from Shakespeare. Later I came to see that Mr. Shakespeare and Mr. Wordsworth were thinking of men like me when they wrote their words. But most of all, I believe William Shakespeare was. Mind you, I cannot always make sense of what he says, but it will come. It seems to me the less he said, the more beauty he made. Do you know what sentence of his I admire the most? It is, "The bright day is done, and we are for the dark." I wish I'd known those words on the day I watched those German troops land, plane-load after plane-load of them - and come off ships down in the harbor! All I could think of was "damn them, damn them", over and over. If I could have thought the words "the bright day is done, and we are for the dark," I'd have been consoled somehow and ready to go out and contend with circumstance--instead of my heart sinking to my shoes.

On poetry, from The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows - We clung to our books and to our friends; they reminded us that we had another part to us. Elizabeth used to say a poem. I don't remember all of it but it began, "Is it so small a thing to have enjoyed the sun, to have lived light in the spring, to have loved, to have thought, to have done, to have advanced true friends?" It isn't. I hope wherever she is, she has that in her mind. The poem clip is originally from From the Hymn of Empedocles by Matthew Arnold.

On books from The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon - There are 2 quotes but I have to find my copy first! It starts, "Welcome! To the Cemetary of Forgotten Books...