His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman (Northern Lights, The Subtle Knife, The Amber Spyglass)

Despite having heard about it for all of my childhood, I only recently read this novel, and I believe it's one of my favourite fantasies thus far. I'm currenlty reading the last book of the trilogy, The Amber Spyglass.

I love the premise of Pullman's fictional universe - namely that growing up, is about gaining consciousness. I admire how he explains this (and many other philosophical matters) in such a simple and appealing way to children by creating a world where each child has a daemon, that is a symbolic animal. It's extremely well written, complex, and controversial - rebelling against ideas of the church, family, dealing with mental illness etc. VERY interesting material, especially for "just a children's book."

finally finished it some weeks ago... i drew it out, reluctant for the story to end, knowing it wouldn't end happily.... which at the same time makes me think of anne shirley's dictum "only a genius should try to write an unhappy ending." beautiful... and torturous! when will and lyra are so perfect for each other. i am haunted by the story.

i read lyra's oxford immediately after to squelch my cravings... and i don't know if i am happy with the lyra in it. has she lost her spunk?

speaking of which, what on earth is a pine marten? i very well expected pan to become a wildcat.

and while pullman wrote "more lyra"... what about more will? i can't help thinking will will have a much harder time adjusting to his world than lyra. a much harder time "creating more dust." lyra is naturally friendly and it's no surprise that she will make friends at st. sophia's, patiently and cheerfully... but will isn't really a people person. he is earnest, honest, but oh god... the burden on him is SO much harder.

i can't say i'm too happy with the ending. what temptation did mary malone offer... and wasn't it both will and lyra's choice, not just lyra's? WHAT is this means of travelling between worlds without windows, and who is the friend who knows it? serafina? mary? what does it mean, that lyra's oxford and will's oxford will one day overlap but never touch?

arghhhh... i'm so unsated.

Love in the Time of Cholera, Gabriel Marcia Marquez

There are several quotations in Love in the Time of Cholera that I love so far.

"in the solitude of his soul"
"Little by little he idealized her, endowing her with improbable virtues and imaginary sentiments, and after two weeks he thought of nothing else but her."
"a vocation for complicity"
"... after having renounced not onlly their family name but their own identity in exchange for a security that was no more than another of a bride's many illusions. They alone knew how tiresome was the man they loved to distraction, who perhaps loved them but whom they had to continue nurturing until his last breath as if he were a child, suckling himm, changing his soiled diapers, distracting him with a mother's tricks to ease his terror at going out each morning to face reality. And nevertheless, when they watched him leave the house, this man they themselves had urged to conquer the world, then they were the ones left with the terror that he would never return.
"to cry with her in rage at the loss of paradise"

I just finished Marquez's Love in the Time of Cholera. So well written - original in thought, in conclusion, convincing in description and metaphor. I love the writing style; I love it a lot. Stunning, joyous ending.

It is really a "life story."