the story of our lives

select and collect all the words and sentences that in all your readings have been to you like the blast of a trumpet | personal: onceuponabibliophisla

[personaltrumpetblasts]

Mirren was a lifelong book obsessive, who never felt she had quite enough books, who could really only feel secure with half a dozen unread paperbacks propped up by her bedside table, three library cards, two Kindles, and an emergency set of Douglas Adams in the bathroom, in case the lock broke.

The Secret Christmas Library by Jenny Colgan

[personaltrumpetblasts]

Being married isn’t just a legally binding contract, it’s a choice. It’s saying I choose you. Every single day, I wake up and I choose you.

One Day in December by Josie Silver

[personaltrumpetblasts]

There was a languidness in the air, an indolent sigh, a quiet certainty that things would never end, and while people went about their work as usual, without pause and without complaint, they took secret delight in this endless autumn as it told them not to forget to love.

The Life of Elves by Muriel Barbery

[personaltrumpetblasts]

It’s my day off from work, and I’m walking down the same familiar street. There’s a feeling of calm in the air, like everything is at peace on this warm October afternoon.

More Days at the Morisaki Bookshop by Satoshi Yagisawa

[personaltrumpetblasts]

History isn’t a premade tapestry that we’ve got to suffer, a closed world with no exit. We can form it. Make it. We just have to choose to make it.

Babel, Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution by R. F. Kuang

[personaltrumpetblasts]

He was a book, and he was holding his final pages, and he wanted to get to the end to find out how it went, and he didn't want it to be over.

Blue Lily, Lily Blue by Maggie Stiefvater

[personaltrumpetblasts]

Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

[personaltrumpetblasts]

I wish her everything good. I wish her more happiness than can fit in a person. I wish her the kind of happiness that spills over.

We Are Okay by Nina LaCour

[personaltrumpetblasts]

Here, again, the commonplace book steps in. We put in it exactly what suits us—just those things we wish to remember and want to refer to again.

James Mason, 'How to Keep a Commonplace Book', Girl's Own Paper, 1882

[personaltrumpetblasts]

What can you feel? Sunlight, everywhere. Not just on my bare shoulders or the crown of my head but inside me too, the irresistible warmth that comes only from being in the exact right place with the exact right people.

Happy Place by Emily Henry

[personaltrumpetblasts]

You have before you a short work on libraries, that is to say, on books. What subject could be worthier for those of us who constantly use them?

De Bibliothecis by Justus Lipsius (1602)

[personaltrumpetblasts]

'Happy solstice!' They chinked goblets. 'We are halfway out of the dark.'

The Christmas Bookshop by Jenny Colgan

[personaltrumpetblasts]

Haf has always loved food, and thanks to learning from the brilliant and clever fat-positive babes online, she's now comfortable enough within her own body where she doesn't feel she ever has to hide that. There's no calling food naughty or talking about walking it off in her world.

Make You Mine this Christmas by Lizzie Huxley-Jones

[personaltrumpetblasts]

Here was yet another liminal space, a crossing point between the mundane and the magical. Winter, it seems, is full of them: fleeting invitations to step out of the ordinary.

Wintering: How I Learned to Flourish When Life Became Frozen by Katherine May

[personaltrumpetblasts]

This is what I have always done. When the bite of real life is too brutal, I retreat into made-up worlds and tread well-worn paths. I don't crave the new when I feel like this, but look for solace in the familiar.

Dear Reader by Cathy Rentzenbrink

[personaltrumpetblasts]

Pay attention, be brave, see the truth, write it down. That will always be enough.

A Still Life: A Memoir by Josie George

[personaltrumpetblasts]

Remember that. When you go, you want to have people you love to think about. You need enough money to feed yourself, and a sense of purpose is nice. But the rest is superfluous.

The Psychology of Time Travel by Kate Mascarenhas