An interesting thought to judge your reading against

"When I* was 17, Isaac Babel's stories opened a door in my mind, and behind that door I found a room where I wanted to spend the rest of my life." How often can you say that about the books you read?
* Paul Auster

Martin Luther King, Jr.—what would he say today?

Cowardice asks the question, ‘Is it safe?’ Expediency asks the question, “Is it politic?” Vanity asks the question, “Is it popular?” But, conscience asks the question, “Is it right?” And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular but one must take it because one’s conscience tells one that it is right.

I wonder what comments he would make today in the midst of so much cacophony?

How do you get ready to love Tolstoy?

"Childhood reading is magic." "Huck and Jim on the raft. Scout in the courtroom. The images in my mind’s eye I created as a child reading those books are still inside me. I can call them up even now, as I sit using the free Wi-Fi at this coffee shop in Austin, Texas. That’s a miracle! I believe reading is one of the most special — and most crucial — pleasures of childhood. If I hadn’t read Judy Blume as a kid, I’d never have been able to love Tolstoy as an adult." Carrie Fountain