Quote Quoted: The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

I am STILL reading The Night Circus. I had to take a break from it, but now that I’ve picked it back up a few days later, I’m enjoying it more than I was before. So that’s good. I read this quote yesterday and I thought it was just a beautiful visual and really atmospheric. I had to share. 🙂

There is the softest of sobbing as the coffin is lowered into the ground, but it is difficult to pinpoint who it is coming from, or if it is instead a collective sound of mingled sighs and wind and shifting feet.

I just really liked it. So that’s it. I just wanted to share the quote.

Hope everyone has a good day!

Quote Quoted: Wonder by R.J. Palacio

I just finished the audiobook for Wonder by R.J. Palacio this morning, and there was a quote that I wanted to talk about here. Just in case you don’t know what Wonder is about, I’ll give a little synopsis.

August has a facial deformity. Until now, he’s been homeschooled, but his parents decide that it is time for him to start real school, so they enroll him and the book follows his year in the fifth grade. Of course, starting school for the first time is hard enough, but when you look different, kids can be mean. Auggie goes through a lot of horrible things, but he makes some friends along the way.

The first day I showed up at school with the hearing aids, I thought kids would make a big deal about it. But no one did. Summer was glad I could hear better, and Jack said it made me look like an FBI agent or something. But that was it. Mr. Browne asked me about it in English class, but it wasn’t like, what the heck is that thing on your head?! It was more like, “If you ever need me to repeat something, Auggie, make sure you tell me, okay?

Now that I look back, I don’t know why I was so stressed about it all this time. Funny how sometimes you worry a lot about something and it turns out to be nothing. – Page 215

You may have noticed in my blog picture that I don’t have any hair. Now, I’m not comparing alopecia to a facial deformity, but I have first-hand experience with how mean kids (and adults) can be. I’ve had a lot of people stare at me and say things and point and ask rude questions. My confidence level is a lot higher than it used to be (which was really, really low). Most of you probably don’t know that up until about three years ago, I used to wear hats all the time (like even if I slept over at a friend’s house). Finally, FINALLY, I accepted that this is who I am, and if you didn’t like it, I didn’t need you in my life. I love not having hair for a lot of reasons (that I won’t go into unless you want me to). When I heard this quote in the book, it was like, “YES! I know exactly how that feels.” I mean, he even mentions his teacher didn’t ask what the thing on his head was! Haha. I look back on what I thought would happen before I took off my hat for good, and while it has been hard sometimes, overall people have been great. You really do worry way too much about something that is just nothing.

Quote Quoted: The Lost Thing by Shaun Tan

I can’t say that the thing actually belonged in the place where it ended up. In fact, none of the things there really belonged. They all seemed happy enough though, so maybe that didn’t matter.

I’m not where I thought I’d be in my life right now, but it’s all about perspective, isn’t it? Be happy that you’re alive. Be happy that you have the things you need in life. Be happy that, while you’re not doing what you thought you’d be doing right now, you are doing something you love to do. Be happy you can read and that you have books. Be happy that you are surrounded by books. You can belong anywhere.

I’m going to quote from a song by my favorite band, The Neighbourhood.

They say it’s happy here, happiness is figurative, I’m happy ’cause of me, doesn’t matter where I’m living

So yeah. If you couldn’t tell, I really liked this quote. It’s from “The Lost Thing” by Shaun Tan, which is one of the illustrated short stories, collected in Lost and Found, which I would highly recommend. I particularly enjoyed “The Red Tree” from that book.

Quote Quoted: The Savage by David Almond

It’s been a while since I did a Quote Quoted post. I don’t know why. I suppose I haven’t found a quote that I just needed to post right away. I read this quote from The Savage last night and liked it a lot. I don’t really have a reason why other than that I just think it is beautifully written and I wanted other people to read it. And maybe I thought it kind of fit me a little bit? I don’t know. I mean, I can’t claim to be magic, but I know I’m a little weird and strange and full of dreams. Anyway, I’ll stop blathering on and just give you the quote:

He was just like me, only weirder and wilder and closer to some magic and some darkness and some dreams. -Page 13

Beautiful, isn’t it?

The Savage is written by David Almond and illustrated by Dave McKean (who I’m kind of obsessed with). I’ll be reviewing it soon.