. . . if the books I have read have helped to form me, then probably nobody else who ever lived has read exactly the same books, all the same books and only the same books, as me. So just as my genes and the soul within me make me uniquely me, so I am the unique sum of the books I have read. I am my literary DNA.
--Susan Hill, Howards End is on the Landing
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A bang, not a whimper
Two months into L.'s retirement, and I'm finished with the stockpiling of books. No more book purchases! Or at least, no purcha...
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(See also Musee des Beaux Arts ) As far as mental anguish goes, the old painters were no fools. They understood how the mind, the freakiest ...
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When I finished Kevin Brockmeier's A Brief History of the Dead last spring I immediately did a search to see if the Coca-Cola Corp. had...
Nice! I think I want that book.
ReplyDeleteI love the idea of literary DNA. I think I'll be picking up this one as well!
ReplyDeleteWhat a great idea. Almost makes you want to start reading more off the beaten track to make your DNA even more unique (kind of like the X men of literary DNA).
ReplyDeleteI love this thought. It also means we can change who we are by what we choose to read. You cannot erase the past but you can dilute it :)
ReplyDeleteI love this quote and the book that it comes from sounded so interesting to me (and similar to my own reading goal for 2010) that I've made it one of my last book purchases for the year.
ReplyDelete