I just finished and loved Snow Glass Apples by Neil Gaiman. However, I go to look at the reviews on Goodreads (I know, ew Goodreads and all) and half or so are poor ratings stating the story is grossly portraying child rape and prostitution? Thoughts on that? I was just enamored with seeing the Evil Queen in a different light and the art is gorgeous.

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I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.

PAUL Atreides

Frank Herbert's Dune

As I've gotten older, I have a hard time staying awake while reading, even in books I am invested in... does anyone else have this issue, or coping strategies to recommend?

Lonesome Dove which led me on a great adventure with Larry McMurtry

Jane Eyre

"I was not in love but felt a tender curiosity"-Nic Carraway from the great Gatsby This quote just describes my love life

"Doing better next time. That's what life is."

-Joe Abercrombie, Before they are Hanged

Say one thing about Logen Ninefingers, say he knows how to keep moving forward.

The older I get the easier it becomes to dwell on the mistakes I've made or things I could have done differently, but this really helped me get out of feeling discouraged. There is always a next time if you're willing to try for it.

Hannibal Lector is for me, a definite anti-hero. He represents the banal human condition, that he kills and eats those who "deserve it," as though he is doing humanity a favor. It is like he relishes the thought of being so misunderstood, that the rest of the human race couldn't possibly understand his actions for the good he sees himself doing.

And then there is Clarice. She is "good" at first glance, a real heroine. But she is misunderstood, broken. Hannibal sees Her true potential hindered by her own ego. She is repelled by hannibal because he represents what is considered evil and taboo by society, the opposite of the order and safety she knew from her late father. The one thing about Dr. Lector, was that he always hated egomaniacs, though he was one himself. Clarice was the one person who, I think, saw through this.

I always thought that Hannibal drawing out the most banal and carnal urges in Clarice, however horrific and manipulative his actions were, were meant to be for her character.

My absolute favourite author:

“Morpheus: It is sometimes a mistake to climb. It is always a mistake never even to make the attempt... If you do not climb you will not fall. This is true. But is it that bad to fall, that hard to fall? Sometimes you wake, and sometimes, yes, you die. But there is a third alternative."

Todd, upon waking: "Sometimes you wake up. Sometimes the fall kills you. And sometimes, when you fall...you fly.” Neil Gaiman, Sandman

I read that when I was around 21/22 and it hit me hard because I would often let fear stop me from doing things.

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Art (of any genre) has no "shoulds" or "shouldn'ts".

Consumers of art--in this case, readers--have their preferences, and an author may or may not meet those preferences to one degree or another.

But where a narrative starts and ends, and whatever closure (if any) a story has, is entirely the choice of the person creating it.

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“I ask you right here please to agree with me that a scar is never ugly. That is what the scar makers want us to think. But you and I, we must make an agreement to defy them. We must see all scars as beauty. Okay? This will be our secret. Because take it from me, a scar does not form on the dying. A scar means, I survived.”

From Little Bee by Chris Cleave. It still makes my breath catch in my throat.

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What - Virginia Woolf: As a woman, my country is the whole world.

When - Every day I see it.

I picked up Looking For Alaska when i moved away to a small college. The school was very similar to the one described in the book. >!At the end of the first semester, a girl died in a car crash on her way home, leaving the student body completely shaken.!<

I've never had a book speak my experience so closely and profoundly.

I just read Fahrenheit 451 for the first time, and holy crap was it powerful. Makes me scared for our future.

I found a 20+ hour audio book called "He Who Fights With Monsters" 2 days before I had to drive 20+ hours.

Unfortunately, The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged.

When you're a teenager used to everybody telling you how smart you are and you're reading books like this it's very easy to imagine yourself as this sort of uber-competent, hyper-focused robot dedicated to Work, and so you think you are the kind of person this ideology is made for. "I'd be able to be super rich and influential so long as I don't let the parasites get in my way!"

It's taken me 2 decades and a lot of humble pie to realize how absolutely shitty those books and that worldview are. Looking back on it, those books were absolute poison that gave me such a shitty outlook on life and other people that it became almost impossible to function in the real world.

(I read this in Polish so I don't know what the proper English translation of this quote is) I was reading The New Gods by Emil Cioran while having my depressive episode and constantly analyzing my past (former gifted child here) not knowing where to go next. I was extremely confused and then this sentence came to me:

>my memory is cluttered with the remains of shattered horizons

and I thought then that I couldn't describe my state of mind any better. It helped me sort some things out in my head.

In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer.

And that makes me happy. For it says that no matter how hard the world pushes against me, within me, there’s something stronger – something better, pushing right back.

• Albert Camus

"I dream she is alive even now, but there is nothing to give weight or value to that, it is only me, and what I want to be true. It is only longing."

A Brightness Long Ago - Guy Gavriel Kay

Yeah, there's nothing like reading a book and coming across a quote or passage that makes you feel understood.