The other day I finished reading Jonathan Carroll’s the The Ghost in Love a book
I have had for some time but had not read. I am not sure why, Jonathan Carroll
is a very important writer for me and I have as far as I know, all his books including
a few rarer things like the Weird Tales special Jonathan Carroll issue from 1990/1
and a limited edition copy of the Heidelberg Cylinder but I had been saving
Ghost possibly I feared disappointment, I am not sure, I wasn’t disappointed
it was wonderful. Hopefully this will explain why I have been thinking about and
quoting him for the last couple of days. I also visited his website and read
a number of the stories there, in one story “Home on the Rain”
which I quite enjoyed, I found the following quote which appears to be
a paraphrase of a quote translated many different ways
on the internet by Rabbi Tarfon or Tarphon I like Carroll’s version.
“ The world is not yours to finish
but neither are you free to take no part in it”
"I entrench myself in my books, equally
against sorrow and the weather.”
Leigh Hunt The Literary Examiner : My Books
Quoted in The Friendship of Books
Edited with an introduction by Temple Scott
The Macmillan Company 1911
4 comments:
I'll have to read it!! Boom & Gary of the Vermilon River, Canada.
Hi gary
I hope you like his work. My favorite book of his is Land of Laughs. A lot of his novels feature dogs, often magic dogs so I know Boomer will be onside.
Regards
Guy
Ah...books, the doors to other places, other lives, the stairway to heaven and the steps to hell. So much can be said about books. I like the quote from Shadowlands, the movie about C.S. Lewis where one of his students says, "We read to know we are not alone." I think we read for so many different reasons that it would take a volume to write them all down! I have not heard of this writer or that book. You have made me curious!
Hi Kathie
Jonathan Carroll is a quirky writer so he may be an acquired taste I really like the fantastic so I quite enjoy him. I agree about books they act, I think for people who enjoy them, almost as magic doors that can change a mood, lift your spirits or help decide a course of action. I love the quote from Shadowlands I have a similar quote I will use in my next blog.
Regards
Guy
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