Tuesday 9 October 2012

Top Ten Book Quotes


1. “I wanted to tell the book thief many things, about beauty and brutality. But what could I tell her about those things that she didn't already know? I wanted to explain that I am constantly overestimating and underestimating the human race - that rarely do I ever simply estimate it. I wanted to ask her how the same thing could be so ugly and so glorious, and its words and stories so damning and brilliant... I am haunted by humans.”- Death in The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

2. "What I'm feeling, I think, is joy. And it's been some time since I've felt that blinkered rush of happiness. This might be one of those rare events that lasts, one that'll be remembered and recalled as months and years wind and ravel. One of those sweet, significant moments that leaves a footprint in your mind. A photograph couldn't ever tell its story. It's like something you have to live to understand. One of those freak collisions of fizzing meteors and looming celestial bodies and floating debris and one single beautiful red ball that bursts into your life and through your body like an enormous firework. Where things shift into focus for a moment, and everything makes sense. And it becomes one of those things inside you, a pearl among sludge, one of those big exaggerated memories you can invoke at any moment to peel away a little layer of how you felt, like a lick of ice cream. The flavour of grace." - Charlie in Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey

3. "If you stop to think about it, you’ll have to admit that all the stories in the world consist essentially of twenty-six letters. The letters are always the same, only the arrangement varies. From letters words are formed, from words sentences, from sentences chapters, and from chapters stories." - The Neverending Story by Michael Ende

4. “And this, really, is the story-within-the-story, because if you do not believe that hearts can bloom suddenly bigger, and that love can open like a flower out of even the hardest places, then I am afraid that for you the world will be long and brown and barren, and you will have trouble finding the light.
But if you do believe, then you already know all about magic.” - Liesl and Po by Lauren Oliver

5. “Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show. To begin my life with the beginning of my life, I record that I was born (as I have been informed and believe) on a Friday, at twelve o’clock at night. It was remarked that the clock began to strike, and I began to cry, simultaneously.” - David Copperfield in David Copperfield by Charles Dickens

6. “I used to dream about escaping my ordinary life, but my life was never ordinary. I had simply failed to notice how extraordinary it was.” - Jacob in Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

7. “I have for the first time found what I can truly love–I have found you. You are my sympathy–my better self–my good angel–I am bound to you with a strong attachment. I think you good, gifted, lovely: a fervent, a solemn passion is conceived in my heart; it leans to you, draws you to my centre and spring of life, wrap my existence about you–and, kindling in pure, powerful flame, fuses you and me in one.” Mr Rochester in Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

8.  “My father took one hundred and thirty-two minutes to die.
I counted.
It happened on the Jellicoe Road. The prettiest road I’d ever seen, where trees made breezy canopies like a tunnel to Shangri-La. We were going to the ocean, hundreds of miles away, because I wanted to see the ocean and my father said that it was about time the four of us made that journey. I remember asking, 'What’s the difference between a trip and a journey?' and my father said, 'Narnie, my love, when we get there, you’ll understand,' and that was the last thing he ever said.” - Narnie in On the Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta

9.   “The unicorn lived in a lilac wood, and she lived all alone... she was no longer the careless color of sea foam, but rather the color of snow falling on a moonlit night.” - The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle

10.  "You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope. Tell me not that I am too late, that such precious feelings are gone forever. I offer myself to you again with a heart even more your own, than when you almost broke it eight years and a half ago." - Captain Wentworth in Persuasion by Jane Austen

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish

11 comments:

  1. I love that quote from Captain Wentworth! Persuasion is one of my all time favorite books.

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  2. Ohhh! "You pierce my soul." To have those words said to you, even once in your life? It's what we live for, I think.

    Here's my Ten Ten Words I Love. I hope you'll stop in!

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  3. You had me at number 1. LOVE that book, love that quote.

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  4. Awesome! Great list! I really love: “I used to dream about escaping my ordinary life, but my life was never ordinary. I had simply failed to notice how extraordinary it was.” Such a great one.


    J'adore Happy Endings

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  5. I agree with Nina, great quote. Nice post, I like it a lot. :)

    My TTT

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  6. The first quote is great, I love The Book Thief so much! And Jellicoe Road is an awesome book, so many quotable lines in it!

    Thanks for stopping by :)

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  7. I could quote everything from The book thief <3

    The quote from Liesl & Po is lovely too! And Mr. Rochester ^^

    TTT @thedailyprophecy.

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  8. SO much goodness.
    I'm listening to L&P now and will be trying Peregrine soon.
    :)

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  9. I think you've picked some really great quotes here. The Book Thief, Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, and Liesl & Po are all fantastic books.

    I just bought a copy of Jasper Jones last night and I can't wait to read it.

    I still need to read on the Jellicoe Road. But soon.

    The writing is beautiful in all of these.

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  10. Oh. Between Death and Captain Wentworth, I need a tissue. Okay, I lie. I need a box of tissues.

    My TTT: http://shelversanon.blogspot.com/2012/10/top-10-tuesday-rewind-top-ten-bookish.html

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  11. Love this post! Number three is my favorite. :)


    New follower...http://demitrialunetta.blogspot.com

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