The Keyrock Kollection – Volume 2

Saved quotes from my 2013 black Kindle named Keyrock, Part 2 – read Part 1 here.

1/4/18 – The Storied Life of A.J. Fikroy by Gabrielle Zevin

People tell boring lies about politics, God, and love. You know everything you need to know about a person from the answer to the question, What is your favorite book?

2/9/18 – The Princess Bride: S. Morgenstern’s Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure by William Goldman

The wrong people die, some of them, and the reason is this: life is not fair. Forget all the garbage your parents put out.

&

He didn’t really blame them; he looked like the kind of person you did that to, mocked. His clothes were torn and his throat was gone and his eyes were wild and he probably would have yelled too if he’d been their age.

12/6/18 – The Good Widow by Liz Fenton and Lisa Steinke

It was one of my biggest fears… that instead of just being a widow the rest of my life, I’d be a victim. People say that’s a choice, and they’re right. But the thing is, when it’s your shit hitting the fan, it’s ridiculously easy to lean into the sadness.

Keyrock is dead; long live Keyrock. On January 19, 2020, after almost seven (7!!) years of near-daily use, Keyrock (second of His Name) went into sleep mode for the very last time. Future Keyrock Kollections will be coming at you from Keyrock III, my 2020 graphite Kindle Oasis. 

PourOneOut

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The Keyrock Kollection – Volume 1

Saved quotes from my 2013 black Kindle named Keyrock, Part 1

2/7/15 – Cry Father by Benjamin Whitmer

They put people in prison for taking drugs. They lock kids away for stealing money from gas stations, for joyriding in cars. But men who abandon their children, they float through life, as light as air.

2/7/15 – The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

They were glued down, every last one of them. A packet of souls. Was it fate? Misfortune? Is that what glued them down like that? Of course not. Let’s not be stupid. It probably had more to do with the hurled bombs, thrown down by humans hiding in the clouds.

10/18/13 – Canada by Richard Ford

The prelude to very bad things can be ridiculous […] but can also be casual and unremarkable. Which is worth recognizing, since it indicates where many bad events originate: from just an inch away from the everyday.

&

There are people like that in the world – people with something wrong with them that can be disguised but won’t be denied, and which dominates them.

emona

Tipping point

My criteria for buying books is as follows:

  1. Did the title catch my eye? If so…
  2. Is it longer than 200 pages? And finally…
  3. Does it cost less than $4 (preferably less than $3!) with tax?

I spent many a weekday evening combing the discount sections of my neighborhood used bookstore, so massive we called it The  Warehouse. It was practically my entire social life. On our very first date, my husband and I spent an awkward hour in that very bookstore – he exclusively reads politically themed non-fiction, I’ll read basically anything but politically themed non-fiction – and he found for me a book I’d been looking for for three years straight.

(Ladies, that’s how you know he’s a keeper.)

After moving away from the wonderful Warehouse, I expected to have a harder time finding books. These days I buy words on a screen, not tangible text. My Kindle and I are inseparable. I admit, I sometimes miss the smell of old paper, the strange company that prowled the rows with me at 9:30 on a Friday night, the odd bookmark or photo forgotten between pages. Still, I have no regrets. I can shop in my underwear! Surely that counts for something?

My criteria for purchase is basically the same, with one caveat: What do the reviewers think? Having pages of reviews available on any given book still gives me the tingles. I only read a couple reviews per book and only if the first three requirements have already been met. Most times, the reviews posted persuade me to give this book or that one a chance. Other times, I purchase in spite of them. For example:

I enjoyed the overall story very much, but I did not enjoy the explicit sexual discriptions. I also did not like the homosexual references.

SOLD!

emona4 Comments

Exposed and naked

Cora had believed that living built a cumulative bank of memories, thickening and deepening as time went on, shoring you against emptiness.

The present was always paramount, in a way that thrust you forward: empty, but also free. Whatever stories you told over to yourself and others, you were in truth exposed and naked in the present, a prow cleaving new waters; your past was insubstantial behind it, it fell away, it grew into desuetude, its forms grew obsolete.

The problem was, you were always still alive, until the end. You had to do something.

I’m 93% finished with London Train, a little gem I picked up on my Kindle last month and am just now getting around to reading. It’s so wonderful, sweet and sad – and full of lovely imagery, like that.

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