Day 17 – Favourite quote from your favourite book
I’m going to go off my list of ‘favourite book by favourite author’ list here - it makes things a little easier…

The Manual of Detection by Jedediah Berry: “The world is unkind to the shoeless and frolicsome.”

Persuasion by Jane Austen: “You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope. Tell me not that I am too late, that such precious feelings are gone for ever. I offer myself to you again with a heart even more your own than when you almost broke it, eight and a half years ago. Dare not say that a man forgets sooner than woman, that his love has an earlier death. I have loved none but you. Unjust I may have been, weak and resentful I have been, but never inconstant.”

Soulless by Gail Carriger: “Miss Tarabotti was not one of life’s milk-water misses—in fact, quite the opposite. Many a gentleman had likened his first meeting with her to downing a very strong cognac when one was expecting to imbibe fruit juice—that is to say, startling and apt to leave one with a distinct burning sensation.”

So Long & Thanks For All The Fish by Douglas Adams: “The last ever dolphin message was misinterpreted as a surprisingly sophisticated attempt to do a double-backwards-somersault through a hoop whilst whistling the ‘Star Spangled Banner’, but in fact the message was this: So long and thanks for all the fish.”

Eragon by Christopher Paolini: “Do not dwell on what once was, but rather look forward and ponder how you can make the future brighter.”

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides: “Emotions, in my experience, aren’t covered by single words. I don’t believe in “sadness,” “joy,” or “regret.” Maybe the best proof that the language is patriarchal is that it oversimplifies feeling. I’d like to have at my disposal complicated hybrid emotions, Germanic train-car constructions like, say, “the happiness that attends disaster.” Or: “the disappointment of sleeping with one’s fantasy.” I’d like to show how “intimations of mortality brought on by aging family members” connects with “the hatred of mirrors that begins in middle age.” I’d like to have a word for “the sadness inspired by failing restaurants” as well as for “the excitement of getting a room with a minibar.” I’ve never had the right words to describe my life, and now that I’ve entered my story, I need them more than ever.”

Day 18 – A book that disappointed you
The book that disappointed me the most was The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. (Unpopular opinion here:) As much as everyone raves on about how wonderful it is, I just couldn’t connect with the characters, or with the story itself. I won’t deny that it is well-written but it is obviously just not for me. Maybe I should re-read it and see if I feel differently from when I first read it (it may have been too soon after I lost my parents to read about these sorts of things).