Quotes From Summer Reading

Just thought I'd toss up some quality quotes from some recent books I've been reading/completed. Since the beginning of the summer, I'm proud to be doing my part in reviving book loving of this nation without a digital Amzon doohickey. Is it just me or is one of the major parts of the book reading experience the difference between the books? The way the cover stares at you over and over every time you put the book down until you finish it. The way the pages are worn by how many times you've shoved it in your bag or dripped some coffee or sweat on it. Or just the process of reading a used book that anyone in the world could have read previously...



From Denis Johnson's much shorter/easily digestible Tree of Smoke follow-up Nobody Move:

This guy didn't know much about follow-through... He wasn't wearing a Hawaiian shirt at the moment but undoubtedly possessed several. (Page 28)

A few from Dave Eggers' short story collection How We Are Hungry:

The sideburns had come and gone and now was back and this was a mistake. (24)

She wanted to rub herself in bananas. She wanted to open umbrellas into the faces of cats, make them scurry and scream. (33)

She's watching a move on Adam's TV - Fred Thompson is playing the president, and it using that dissatisfied look he uses. (68)

From Patrick Dewitt's debut Ablutions: Notes for a Novel, an alcoholic bartender in LA's downward spiral into despair with a collective of down and out patrons, this quote is about waking up with hangover:

You are your own doctor, sympathetic but ultimately disconnected. (23)

From James Wood's New Yorker Essay "A Fine Rage: George Orwell's Revolution"

So Orwell was contradictory: contradictions are what make writers interesting; consistency is for cooking.

Also read an excellent graphic novel history of the Beat movement, primarily written by Harvey Pekar of American Splendor fame called The Beats which I learned quite a bit about a generation that always interested me, a bunch of John Le Carre novels including his most recent A Most Wanted Man, Elmore Leonard's latest novel Road Dogs, the return of the Jack Foley character from Out of Sight, a perfect breezy summer read.

If you'd like to see what I'm reading bookwise, check out my goodreads profile. Read any good quotes yourself lately?