LaurieWrites

BAFAB, already.

Buy a Friend a Book. Seriously. What could be better? Good karma. Good books.

Salutations!

I got some funny photos in the mail yesterday. Here's one. In honor of the photographer, a few quotes:

"It is not often that someone comes along who is a true friend and a good writer." Wilbur

"...the quickest way to spoil a friendship is to wake somebody up in the morning before he is ready." Charlotte

"People believe almost anything they see in print." Charlotte

"We must advertise Wilbur's noble qualities, not his tastiness." Charlotte

"Why did you do all this for me?" he asked. "I don't deserve it. I've never done anything for you."
     "You have been my friend," replied Charlotte. "That in itself is a tremendous thing. I wove my webs for you because I liked you. After all, what's a life, anyway? We're born, we live a little while, we die... By helping you, perhaps I was trying to lift up my life a trifle. Heaven knows anyone's life can stand a little of that."

I am so thankful for E.B. White.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

This is a great book. Read the first chapter here:

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

by Jonathan Safran Foer. He also wrote Everything is Illuminated last year, which I haven't read yet. My friend lent me a copy of the new book after I read so many great reviews (including one from my friend Vicky who I trust with all things literary...) that I had to jump on the bandwagon. I got through the first 200 pages yesterday and found myself stopping to copy quotes from the text. Foer has an amazing mind.

His protagonist is a little boy whose father died in the World Trade Center. He finds a key in his dad's closet and spends the next year visiting everyone named "Black" in the NYC phonebook, trying to figure out what the key means.

If you're a fan of consistent punctuation and prose that always seems to know where it's going, this might not be your thing. But if you're into language with a life of its own, and can deal with ambiguity in a big way, read this book.