books!

Recently I've had so many things to think about, and so many writing topics with lots of potential for expression, but now I cannot remember any single one of them. I do remember how some of these ideas came to birth, but I cannot remember them.

So much for photographic memory.

I have been reading a lot, having completed two full books and three quarters of another in the span of two weeks, and I have had so many insights on life. Sometimes what is so thrilling in a book is to see a character who resembles you. Someone who feels what you have felt, and someone who knows what it feels like. Here are two excerpts from the book "Second Glance" by Jodi Picoult.

Ross shook his head. "When I do those things, it's not for the thrill. It's because sometimes I get so down that I need to feel something, anything. And since a pinprick isn't cutting it, I've got to try a meat cleaver."
"I know," Ethan breathed. "And that rocks."
"The thing is, Eth, I'd give anything to be sitting on a bed in a house that was safe, knowing that on the other side of the wall was someone who would rather die than think of me being hurt."

"Don't try so hard to be me," Ross said, "when all I'm trying to be is someone else."
Suddenly Ethan felt like a sock was stuck in his throat, and those stupid tears were coming. "I just want to be normal," he said.
"Yeah, well... if it weren't for you and me, normal people would have nothing to measure themselves against."
Ethan hiccuped on a laugh. "I guess we'd better stick together."