A collection of humorous short stories for boys. Some of them are very good, others so-so. I would probably have enjoyed it more if i were parenting boys, instead of girls.
24 January 2013
Quincas Borba (Machado de Assis)
Talvez o melhor livro de Machado. Pós-moderno como sempre, cronista da loucura humana que passa por vida normal.
Quotes:
Ao vencido, ódio ou compaixão; ao vencedor, as batatas.
Quincas Borba chorava pelo outro Quincas Borba. Não quis vê-lo à saída. Chorava deveras; lágrimas de loucura ou de afeição, quaisquer que fossem, ele as ia deixando pela boa terra mineira, como o derradeiro suor de uma alma obscura, prestes a cair no abismo.
Humanitas é o princípio. Há nas coisas todas certa substância recôndita e idêntica, um princípio único, universal, eterno, comum, indivisível e indestrutível, — ou, para usar a linguagem do grande Camões: Uma verdade que nas coisas anda, Que mora no visíbil e invisíbil. Pois essa substância ou verdade, esse princípio indestrutível é que é Humanitas. Assim lhe chamo, porque resume o universo, e o universo é o homem.
esquece a dor, crê na esperança.
Quem conhece o solo e o subsolo da vida, sabe muito bem que um trecho de muro, um banco, um tapete, um guarda-chuva, são ricos de idéias ou de sentimentos, quando nós também o somos, e que as reflexões de parceria entre os homens e as coisas compõem um dos mais interessantes fenômenos da terra.
A expressão: "Conversar com os seus botões", parecendo simples metáfora, é frase de sentido real e direto. Os botões operam sincronicamente conosco; formam uma espécie de senado, cômodo e barato, que vota sempre as nossas moções.
"Há entre o céu e a terra, Horácio, muitas coisas mais do que sonha a vossa vã filantropia".
Rubião precisava de um pedaço de corda que o atasse à realidade, porque o espírito sentia-se outra vez presa da vertigem.
Eia! chora os dois recentes mortos, se tens lágrimas. Se só tens riso ri-te! É a mesma coisa. O Cruzeiro, que a linda Sofia não quis fitar, como lhe pedia Rubião, está assaz alto para não discernir os risos e as lágrimas dos homens.
16 January 2013
15 January 2013
Cloud Atlas: A Novel (Mitchell, David)
A clever book, built like a Russian doll. A little too messy to be life-changing, but a work of genius. I read somewhere someone said that "half of the time it wants to be the Bible, and the other half, the Simpsons."
Quotes:
“Pain is strong, aye—but friends’ eyes, more strong.”
Several dead bottles of Trappist beer later, I asked Elgar about the Pomp and Circumstance marches. “Oh, I needed the money, dear boy. But don’t tell anyone.
You must imagine our awe as we looked at the grimy server serving three ugly sisters; seven stunted fabricants carrying bizarre cutlery behind a shining girl; a house built of candy. Castles, mirrors, dragons.
Dear Sonmi, Who art amongst us, return this beloved soul to a valley womb, we beseech thee.
Valleysmen only had one god an’ her name it was Sonmi.
Yay, Old Uns’ Smart mastered sicks, miles, seeds an’ made miracles ord’nary, but it din’t master one thing, nay, a hunger in the hearts o’ humans, yay, a hunger for more.
Souls cross ages like clouds cross skies, an’ tho’ a cloud’s shape nor hue nor size don’t stay the same, it’s still a cloud an’ so is a soul. Who can say where the cloud’s blowed from or who the soul’ll be ’morrow? Only Sonmi the east an’ the west an’ the compass an’ the atlas, yay, only the atlas o’ clouds.
Catechism Seven: “A Soul’s value is the dollars therein.”
If consumers found fulfillment at any meaningful level, she xtemporized, corpocracy would be finished.
What wouldn’t I give now for a never-changing map of the ever-constant ineffable? To possess, as it were, an atlas of clouds.
One model of time: an infinite matryoshka doll of painted moments, each “shell” (the present) encased inside a nest of “shells” (previous presents)
Courage grows anywhere, thinks Megan Sixsmith, like weeds.
science devises ever bloodier means of war until humanity’s powers of destruction overcome our powers of creation and our civilization drives itself to extinction.
Spent the fortnight gone in the music room, reworking my year’s fragments into a “sextet for overlapping soloists”: piano, clarinet, ‘cello, flute, oboe, and violin, each in its own language of key, scale, and color. In the first set, each solo is interrupted by its successor: in the second, each interruption is recontinued, in order. Revolutionary or gimmicky?
“These are the tears of things”
Sunt lacrimæ rerum.
“The second law of survival states that there is no second law. Eat or be eaten. That’s it.”
My thoughts flow thus. Scholars discern motions in history & formulate these motions into rules that govern the rises & falls of civilizations. My belief runs contrary, however. To wit: history admits no rules; only outcomes. What precipitates outcomes? Vicious acts & virtuous acts.
My thoughts flow thus. Scholars discern motions in history & formulate these motions into rules that govern the rises & falls of civilizations. My belief runs contrary, however. To wit: history admits no rules; only outcomes. What precipitates outcomes? Vicious acts & virtuous acts. What precipitates acts? Belief.
A life spent shaping a world I want Jackson to inherit, not one I fear Jackson shall inherit, this strikes me as a life worth the living.
Yet what is any ocean but a multitude of drops?
04 January 2013
Tea Time for the Traditionally Built: A No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency Novel (10) (The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency) (Mccall Smith, Alexander)
I keep saying the same things... i love this series!
Quotes:
I am your sister. There was no simpler or more effective way of expressing a whole philosophy of life.
When we dismiss or deny the hopes of others, she thought, we forget that they, like us, have only one chance in this life.
“Who is this Rra Holmes?” asked the woman. “He was a very famous detective,” said Mma Ramotswe. “Over that way.” She waved a hand in the direction of north. “He lived in London. He is late now.”
The doors of the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency had always been open to whosoever was in need. As Mma Makutsi well knew, they had sat and listened to the proud, the boastful, the arrogant, and even the moderately wicked. They had not condoned any of the human vices revealed to them, but they had always remembered that whatever the failings of the client, he or she was first and foremost a person in need of help.
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