Book lines on my mind

F

rom this week's readings:

How can we write the truth about ourselves? Do we even know it? There is the vision our friends have of us; the vision we have of ourselves, and the vision our lover has of us. Also the vision our enemies have of us — and all these visions are different. I have good reason to know this, because I have had served to me with my morning coffee newspaper criticisms that declared I was beautiful as a goddess, and that I was a genius, and hardly had I finished smiling contentedly over this, than I picked up the next paper and read that I was without any talent, badly shaped and a perfect harpy.

Discovered in My Life, by Isadora Duncan (published 1927)

Book lines on my mind

F

rom this week's readings:

I would prefer to read something I don't enjoy than do almost anything else. I like the act of reading in itself. Following the line of something — not just the story but the rhythm, the tone, the feel of what has accumulated from before and what is beginning to impend — becoming surefooted on the high-wire of the author's intention.

Discovered in Are You Somebody? The Accidental Memoir of a Dublin Woman by Nuala O'Faolain