From "East of Eden"

I love this word picture:

They called him a comical genius and carried his stories carefully home, and they wondered at how the stories spilled out on the way, for they never sounded the same repeated in their own kitchens.
- John Steinbeck, East of Eden

Books, please.

Christmas break is here, and I am gorging myself on books again. Do you, gentle readers, have any recommendations? I'd like stories that suck me into another world; prose that captivates me with its power. I love novels, but I'd go for a well-written biography or piece of nonfiction.

Cranky

Finals week always makes me crabby. Nothing like trying to prepare for four major final exams (with a cold and three canker-sores) to bring out the sinful, performance obsessed perfectionist in me. (what? in me?)

I am so glad that I will never, ever, ever be taking another philosophy exam for Dr. Talbot. (after Wednesday)

Another word from Augustine

I am Christ-like because I like salmon.
"Or someone might have a healthy preference for eating fish, like our Lord."
On Christian Teaching, Book Three, 45

A little word from Saint Augustine

There is this important difference between temporal things and eternal things: something temporal is loved more before it is possessed, but will lose its appeal when attained, for it does not satisfy the soul, whose true and certain abode is eternity. The eternal, on the other hand, is loved more passionately when obtained than when desired. No one who desires it is allowed to think more highly of it than is warranted (it would then disappoint when found to be less impressive); but however high one's expectations while on the way, one will find it even more impressive on arrival.
- On Christian Teaching, Book One, XXXVIII 92.