One down, four to go
1 Sep 2004 05:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
salineaFirst exam done today. That was english so I wasn't overly stressed about it.
Went on a reading spree after I finished the Harry Dresden books ^_^
I called Bujold to the rescue and devoured Shards of Honour and Barrayar. It must be the books of the serie I read the least because I used to prefer the ones with Miles (for humour sake mostly), but I really liked re-reading it and got into Cordelia as I didn't use to be. Sign of maturity or senility, I wonder ? But they are good, rough sometimes, and with a bad pacing, but nice characters, nice story and nice themes.
I actually was underlining some lines I liked because there's some very good quote material there.
"The really unforgivable acts are committed by calm men in beautiful silk rooms, who deal death wholesale, by the shipload, without lust, or anger, or desire, or any redeemable emotion to excuse them but cold fear of some pretended future."
"I'm sorry. I can love you. I can grieve for you, or with you. I can share your pain. But I cannot judge you."
"But I've always thought - tests are a gift. And great tests are a great gift. To fail the test is a misfortune. But to refuse the test is to refuse the gift, and something worse, more irrevocable, than misfortune."
"the good faces pain. But the great - they embrace it."
" 'By this act I bring one death into the world.' One birth, one death, and all the pain and acts of will between."
"But pain... seems to me an insufficiant reason not to embrace life. Being dead is quite painless. Pain, like time, is going to come regardless. Question is, what glorious moments can youwin from life in addition to the pain ?"
"Endure pain, find joy, and make your own meaning, because the universe is certainly not going to supply it. Always be a moving target. Live. Live. Live."
I should do this more often. I always fail to note quotes I like from a book and regret it afterwhile.
After that I read Patricia McKillip's Riddle master's game trillogy. That was very fine, good high fantasy with nice magical ideas and a beautiful prose. Made me want to reread books like the Earthsea cycle or Fionnavar. It's the kind of books i love for the colours they invoque,I imagine them like aquacolours, gems really. Something sweet that reminds me while I love the world, wonder and magic.
Le ciel est, par dessus les toits
Si bleu, si calme !
Un arbre, par dessus le toit,
Berce sa palme
La cloche, dans le ciel qu'on voit
Doucement tinte.
Un oiseau sur l'arbre qu'on voit
Chante sa plainte
Mon Dieu, mon Dieu, la vie est là
Simple et tranquille.
Cette paisible rumeur-là
Vient de la ville.
Especially while listening to Under the Pink by Tori Amos. In a strange way, it's the music I want to listen to remind me of myself, of what i want, of what I dream of - i don't even pay that much attention to the lyrics which is rather sad :p
Going now, I have an Evening of Science Fiction to join.
Went on a reading spree after I finished the Harry Dresden books ^_^
I called Bujold to the rescue and devoured Shards of Honour and Barrayar. It must be the books of the serie I read the least because I used to prefer the ones with Miles (for humour sake mostly), but I really liked re-reading it and got into Cordelia as I didn't use to be. Sign of maturity or senility, I wonder ? But they are good, rough sometimes, and with a bad pacing, but nice characters, nice story and nice themes.
I actually was underlining some lines I liked because there's some very good quote material there.
"The really unforgivable acts are committed by calm men in beautiful silk rooms, who deal death wholesale, by the shipload, without lust, or anger, or desire, or any redeemable emotion to excuse them but cold fear of some pretended future."
"I'm sorry. I can love you. I can grieve for you, or with you. I can share your pain. But I cannot judge you."
"But I've always thought - tests are a gift. And great tests are a great gift. To fail the test is a misfortune. But to refuse the test is to refuse the gift, and something worse, more irrevocable, than misfortune."
"the good faces pain. But the great - they embrace it."
" 'By this act I bring one death into the world.' One birth, one death, and all the pain and acts of will between."
"But pain... seems to me an insufficiant reason not to embrace life. Being dead is quite painless. Pain, like time, is going to come regardless. Question is, what glorious moments can youwin from life in addition to the pain ?"
"Endure pain, find joy, and make your own meaning, because the universe is certainly not going to supply it. Always be a moving target. Live. Live. Live."
I should do this more often. I always fail to note quotes I like from a book and regret it afterwhile.
After that I read Patricia McKillip's Riddle master's game trillogy. That was very fine, good high fantasy with nice magical ideas and a beautiful prose. Made me want to reread books like the Earthsea cycle or Fionnavar. It's the kind of books i love for the colours they invoque,I imagine them like aquacolours, gems really. Something sweet that reminds me while I love the world, wonder and magic.
Le ciel est, par dessus les toits
Si bleu, si calme !
Un arbre, par dessus le toit,
Berce sa palme
La cloche, dans le ciel qu'on voit
Doucement tinte.
Un oiseau sur l'arbre qu'on voit
Chante sa plainte
Mon Dieu, mon Dieu, la vie est là
Simple et tranquille.
Cette paisible rumeur-là
Vient de la ville.
Especially while listening to Under the Pink by Tori Amos. In a strange way, it's the music I want to listen to remind me of myself, of what i want, of what I dream of - i don't even pay that much attention to the lyrics which is rather sad :p
Going now, I have an Evening of Science Fiction to join.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 1 September 2004 11:51 pm (UTC)Loved the quotes, btw.
no subject
Date: 2 September 2004 10:07 am (UTC)Good luck
And Cordelia´s books I love. I totally agree about not being written as nicely as the rest, she improves her craft as she goes, but it s Cordelia and Aral I am really into, she makes their relationship pretty fascinating, and well, Cordelia is pretty different from her son, but as compelling ( in a less frantic and funny way). Perhaps that was why I was sort of disapointed in Komarr and A Civil Campaing, Miles and whatshername just does not have that level of angst, those nuances and hard choices that are there in Shards of Honor and Barrayar. Weird, you know, I totally agree that Bujold´s later books are better written than her first, but her latest books since Memory left me a bit cold, and SoH is probably my favorite of her books, perhaps tied with Mirror Dance. Since I am feeling old aged ( weather, cranky knees) let us pretend it is a sign of maturity :)