book links

I just finished "Into The Wild" by Jon Krakauer. It made for an awesome read needless to say. It also introduced me to some beautiful yet simple lines from other works. Amongst which are Thoreau's thoughts on vegetarianism.

I leave you with this -

The repugnance to animal food is not the effect of experience, but is an instinct. It appears more beautiful to live low and fare hard in many respects; and though I never did so, I went far enough to please my imagination...

It is hard to provide and cook so simple and clean a diet as will not offend the imagination; but this, I think, is to be fed when we feed the body; they should both sit down at the same table. Yet perhaps this may be done. The fruits eaten temperately need not make us ashamed of our appetites, nor interrupt the worthiest pursuits. But put an extra condiment into your dish, and it will poison you.

"Into The Wild"

No man ever followed his genius till it misled him. Though the results were bodily weakness, yet perhaps no one can say that the consequences were to be regretted, for these were a life in conformity to higher principles. If the day and the night are such that you greet them with joy, and life emits a fragrance like flowers and sweet-scented herbs, is more elastic, more starry, more immortal, -that is your success. All nature is your congratulation, and you have cause momentarily to bless yourself the greatest gains and values are farthest from being appreciated. We easily come to doubt if they exist. We soon forget them. They are the highest reality …. The true harvest of my daily life is somewhat as intangible and indescribable as the tints of morning or evening. It is a little star-dust caught, a segment of the rainbow that I have clutched.

-Henry David Thoreau
Walden, or Life in the woods.

The Book Thief

When Liesel made it to the top of Himmel Street, she looked back just in time to see him standing in front of the nearest makeshift goals. he was waving.
"Saukerl", she laughed, and as she held up her hand, she knew completely that he was simultaneously calling her a Saumensch. I think that's as close to love as eleven-year-olds can get.

"The Book Thief" by Markus Zusak.

Trying to make sense of the horrors of the World War II, Death relates the story of Liesel - a young German girl whose book-stealing and story-telling talents help sustain her family and the Jewish man they are hiding..