Welcome to Litsy!

Soft pick. I don't like the author as a person or his idea of love but he's a wonderful writer and some of the things he writes are not only beautiful but made me think. I disliked the last few chapters, where he becomes more preachy, but overall it's an interesting book. It'll make you think, if nothing else.
I have a lot more to say about this book, both good and bad, but unfortunately Litsy isn't the right place for long reviews.

“Because we believe the surface, we forget that surfaces aren't who we are.“

"I loved opening books to see how they'd begin. Writers create books the way we write lifetimes. A writer can lead any character, to any event, for any purpose, to make any point. What does this writer do, or this one, I wanted to know, with a blank Page One? What do they do to my mind and my spirit, when I read their words?"

"From time to time, I wrote, it's fun to close our eyes, and in that dark say to ourselves, "I am the sorcerer, and when I open my eyes I shall see a world that I have created, and for which I and only I am completely responsible." Slowly then, eyelids open like curtains lifting stage-center. And sure enough, there's our world, just the way we've built it."

““We have to deal in a currency that's meaningful to us,“ she said, “or all the success in the world won't feel good, it won't bring happiness.“

"I leaned back to look and I fell into the stars..."

"If only we could invent a way, I thought, if only this were a world when unmet people could say you charm me and I'd like to know who you are. With a code: "No thanks," if the charm might not be mutual."

"Chess-players sketch their portraits in the motion of their pieces".

Beautifully put.

#chess

"After searching the thousandth crowd, I'm beginning to doubt that soul mates appear in hayfields."
?

This book had a powerful effect on me as I read it whilst travelling in New Zealand at a particularly impressionable Tom in my life

☺

Two things I do value a lot, intimacy and the capacity for joy, didn't seem to be on anyone else's list.