Basically Myra » books

Kafka on Books (and Happiness)

nmyra — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 20:07:52 +0000

“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? So that it will make us happy, as you write? Good Lord, we would be happy precisely if we had no books, and the kind of books that make us happy are the kind we could write ourselves if we had to. But we need books that affect us like a disaster, that grieve us deeply, like the death of someone we loved more than ourselves, like being banished into forests far from everyone, like a suicide. A book must be the axe for the frozen sea within us. That is my belief.”

-Franz Kafka-

Anna Karenina

nmyra — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 17:37:35 +0000

Re-reading one of my favorite books of all time, Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy. I dare say, perhaps, one of the greatest novels ever written.

Vintage Jane Austen

nmyra — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 14:04:18 +0000

Just darling illustrations. I heart Jane Austen. I don’t care what anybody says.

Via Random House

Reading

nmyra — Wed, 20 May 2009 02:11:00 +0000

I just received “Society Without God: What the Least Religious Nations Can Tell Us About Contentment” from Amazon today. Looking forward to starting this one in the next few days.