“ At the wheel of his slow car, Bob Arctor forgot theoretical matters and did a rerun of a moment that had impressed them all: the dainty and elegant straight girl in her turtleneck sweater and bell-bottoms and trippy boobs who wanted them to murder a great harmless bug that in fact did good by wiping out mosquitoes—and in a year in which an outbreak of encephalitis had been anticipated in Orange County—and when they saw what it was and explained, she had said words that became for them their parody evil-wall-motto, to be feared and despised:
IF I HAD KNOWN IT WAS HARMLESS
I WOULD HAVE KILLED IT MYSELF.
— From ‘A Scanner Darkly’ by Philip K. Dick
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“ Once a guy stood all day shaking bugs from his hair. The doctor told him there were no bugs in his hair. After he had taken a shower for eight hours, standing under hot water hour after hour suffering the pain of the bugs, he got out and dried himself, and he still had bugs in his hair; in fact, he had bugs all over him. A month later he had bugs in his lungs.
— From ‘A Scanner Darkly’ by Philip K. Dick
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“ Pleasure need not be less keen because there will be centuries of springs to come, their blossom unseen by human eyes, the walls will crumble, the trees die and rot, the gardens revert to weeds and grass, because all beauty will outlive the human intelligence which records, enjoys and celebrates it.
— From ‘The children of men’ by P.D. James
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There are so many books in the world I want to read, I don’t really re-read much. No matter how much I love the book in question, it always makes me feel like I’m wasting precious time when there are so, so many new things to be exploring- enough that I know I’ll never cover them all in my lifetime as it is.
The Sirens of Titan - Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
Easily tops the list as not just my favourite read of last year, but of all time. I discovered Vonnegut in my 3rd year of uni, and amongst reading for various essays and my dissertation, I made my way through every book of his our uni library had to offer. This was one of the very last, and in my eyes, one of his very best works.
The witty, satirical mind of K.V.J. is sharply at work throughout the text, offering powerfully emotional insights into beautifully eccentric characters, whilst managing to warm my heart with his enduring positive outlook. It’s a sci-fi novel that doesn’t read like a sci-fi novel. It engulfed me so completely I once had to stop reading when I found myself crying on my bus ride home. I can’t rave about it enough!
n.b. as the copy I read was uni property, my wonderful boyfriend bought me my own copy for my last birthday :)
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