Pretentious Reader

I don't read much. But when I do, I'm all pretentious about it.

[pretentiousreaderz]

People don't drift apart for one specific reason. Well, you might be able to find a reason, but you could come up with one only after you made up your mind, a tired excuse tacked on after the fact. If their hearts were still in it and their bond was threatening to sever, you'd think one of them would step in to fix things. When no one does, you know the bond has already been broken.

The Miracles of the Namiya General Store, Keigo Higashino

[pretentiousreaderz]

[pretentiousreaderz]

When you wander in the dark too long, you start to see things that aren’t really there.

Journey Under the Midnight Sun, Keigo Higashino

[pretentiousreaderz]

That’s what happens when you free people from the restraints of time. They make their own rigid schedule.

The Devotion of Suspect X, Keigo Higashino

[pretentiousreaderz]

The crude truth is that parents are like governments: We maintain our authority through the threat, overt or implicit, of physical force. A kid does what we say—not to put too fine a point on it—because we can break his arm.

We Need to Talk about Kevin, Lionel Shriver

[pretentiousreaderz]

However admirable, your eagerness to give your life over to another person may have been due in some measure to the fact that when your life was wholly in your lap you didn't know what to do with it. Self-sacrifice was an easy way out.

We Need to Talk about Kevin, Lionel Shriver

[pretentiousreaderz]

...I wasn't only afraid of becoming my mother, but a mother. I was afraid of being the steadfast, stationary anchor who provides a jumping-off place for another young adventurer whose travels I might envy and whose future is still unmoored and unmapped.

We Need to Talk about Kevin, Lionel Shriver

[pretentiousreaderz]

...maybe it's inevitable that the very things that first attract you to someone are the same things with which you later grow irritated.

We Need to Talk about Kevin, Lionel Shriver

[pretentiousreaderz]

I never, ever took you for granted. We met too late for that; I was nearly thirty-three by then, and my past without you was too stark and insistent for me to find the miracle of companionship ordinary.

We Need to Talk about Kevin, Lionel Shriver

[pretentiousreaderz]

The world is increasingly designed to depress us. Happiness isn't very good for the economy. If we were happy with what we had, why would we need more? How do you sell an anti-ageing moisturiser? You make someone worry about ageing. How do you get people to vote for a political party? You make them worry about immigration. How do you get them to buy insurance? By making them worry about everything. How do you get them to have plastic surgery? By highlighting their physical flaws. How do you get them to watch a TV show? By making them worry about missing out. How do you get them to buy a new smartphone? By making them feel like they are being left behind. To be calm becomes a kind of revolutionary act. To be happy with your own non-upgraded existence. To be comfortable with our messy, human selves, would not be good for business.

Reasons to Stay Alive, Matt Haig

[pretentiousreaderz]

Growing up in a home of abuse, you struggle with the notion that you can love a person you hate, or hate a person you love. It's a strange feeling. You want to live in a world where someone is good or bad, where you either hate them or love them, but that's not how people are.

Born a Crime, Trevor Noah

[pretentiousreaderz]

I'd never been more scared in my life. But I still had to pick. Because racism exists, and you have to pick a side. You can say that you don't pick sides, but eventually life will force you to pick a side.

Born a Crime, Trevor Noah

[pretentiousreaderz]

Being chosen is the greatest gift you can give to another human being.

Born a Crime, Trevor Noah

[pretentiousreaderz]

...every night we deadbolt our doors and check every window. It's our routine. Then we climb in bed and we wait. My wife and I wait for her screams. They call it Rape Trauma Syndrome. Edmund House served six years. We've served nearly thirty.

My Sister’s Grave, Robert Dugoni

[pretentiousreaderz]

...things get broken, and sometimes they get repaired, and in most cases, you realize that no matter what gets damaged, life rearranges itself to compensate for your loss, sometimes wonderfully.

A Little Life, Hanya Yanagihara

[pretentiousreaderz]

What he knew, he knew from books, and books lied, they made things prettier.

A Little Life, Hanya Yanagihara

[pretentiousreaderz]

He experienced the singular pleasure of watching people he loved fall in love with other people he loved.

A Little Life, Hanya Yanagihara