"The Avid Reader"

It's about time I gave you, my readers, an explanation of why I titled my blog the way I did. Apart from it being a catchy title, of course! When I was in 6th or 7th grade, I went on a family trip to New York; while there, we stumbled into a gift shop of an eatery that sold all types of stuff. Games, toys, knickknacks, notebooks, game books, you name it. One of the notebooks they were selling was a small little book with the title "Avid Reader" on the front, along with a drawing of a little man reading on a bench. Inside the notebook, small illustrations tell the story of this man, who has been trying to find the best place to read uninterrupted. He moves from his house to a café to a scenic spot to a park bench to yet another park bench where his avid reader soulmate sits reading, too. There they stay until the moon comes up. Needless to say, I fell in love with this book immediately and knew it had to be mine. What to do with it, though? I decided to make it into a quote book; never could I have imagined that I would actually stick to that for so long. For years I filled this small notebook with quotes from all the books I read. In the beginning, I put pretty cheesy quotes that were romantic and touching, but I grew and so did my literary interests. After three, four years I needed a new quote book. I hadn't exactly filled in every page, but I got damn close to the end and the notebook itself was showing a good amount of wear and tear. I switched to a new notebook (for whatever it's worth, I will mention here that I also have a collection of notebooks) and have been using that one ever since. The sad news, though, is that I have recently stopped writing down these quotes. This is partly because it's hard to find the time, partly because it was tedious to be writing down so many quotes so often, and partly because it is hard to keep up with all the books I read. Luckily, I have the Kindle with it's handy-dandy highliting functions, which saves all my quotes for me automatically.

 The cover, with taped sides

I wrote my college essay on this :)

A look at one of the pages; all the different colored pens I used, the little drawings throughout

 The avid reader and his soul mate, cheering to words.

<3

I love this one. I thought this one was nice with them two sitting amongst so many words, and then I realized it is one of my favorite quotes from one of my favorite books (Atlas Shrugged)!

I love this quote book more than any other book I have. It is a testament to my passion for books, a true indication of what it is about literature that makes my heart pound so. Here are some quotes I have saved:

"So much of the world seemed to lie elsewhere. So much of it unrelated to our being there and what was happening behind our turned backs. Those tiny black ants crawling over my big toe. They looked like they knew what they were doing and where they were going. They didn't know they were just ants."
- Mister Pip, page 209

"For isn't that what our homes are, ultimately our fantasies made corporation, our secret selves exposed? The converse is also true: we grow to become that which we live in."
- Palace of Illusions, page 113

"Her skin, the night, the grass, to be outside then to be inside Carman. He does not want for more because nothing in his life has been as much as this. At the very moment he is taking her away, he is pulling her closer. Her hair is tangled around his neck. On that night he thinks that no one has ever had so much and only later will he know that he should have asked for more. His fingers slip into the soft indentations between her ribs, the delicate gullies carved out by hunger. He feels her teeth, takes her tongue. Carmen, Carmen, Carmen, Carmen. In the future, he will try to say her name enough, but he never can."
-Bel Canto, page 262

"In a world according to the positivist, the inspiring thing about scrambled eggs is that any way you turn them, they're sunny side up. In a world according to the existentialist, the hopeless thing about scrambled eggs is that any way you turn them, you're scrambled."
-Still Life With Wookpecker, page 53

"Sometimes when we are little we imagine how it would be to have wings, but there is no reason to suppose it is the same feeling birds have. No, to a monster the norm must seem monsterous, since everyone is normal to himself. To the inner monster, it must be even more obscure, since he has o visible thing to compare with others. To a man born without a conscience, a soul-stricken man must seem ridiculous. To a criminal, honesty is foolish. You must not forget that a monster is only a variation, and that to the monster the norm is monstrous."
-East of Eden, page 71

"That's the way it is with holes; they're insatiable."
-Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, 2037 (line number...Kindle doesn't give print page numbers)

"So you think you're a failure, do you? Well, you probably are. What's wrong with that? In the first place, if you've any sense at all, you must have learned by now that we pay just as dearly for our triumphs as we do for our defeats. Go ahead and fail. But fail with wit, fail with grace, fail with style. A mediocre failure is as insufferable as a mediocre success. Embrace failure! Seek it out. Learn to love it. That may be the only way any of us will be free."
- Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, line 2821

Those were (for the most part) randomly selected - I tried to give a little of both the old and the new quotes. Hopefully I will start again this quote collection of mine, because looking back on them, I can, however slightly, recreate different experiences, recall times and books that truly affected me.