5 lines from books that live in my head
"Crack them, break their spines!" 📚
There are certain moments that linger, that remain much closer “in mind” than others. One particular moment was gifted to me by my late English literature teacher Mr Alexander Burnett.
Mr Burnett taught me to read. Not in the rudimentary sense — he taught me how to really understand a book. He also loved the hyperbolic: “Books are for reading not simply displaying on a shelf. Crack them, break their spines!” He exclaimed to the classroom of nervous 11 year olds, as he handed out The Great Gatsby. The ice was broken, as were the books. Formative.
“Crack them, break their spines!” — I think about that line every time I start a new book. And then I think about Mr Burnett’s captivating analysis of non-olfactory money in The Great Gatsby:
“Over the great bridge, with the sunlight through the girders making a constant flicker upon the moving cars, with the city rising up across the river in white heaps and sugar lumps all built with a wish out of non-olfactory money.”
— The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
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This got me thinking about other lines from books that stay just below the surface, always there, or just about to come to mind.
Here are four more:
A hot day, a long walk, one sentence repeats in my head:
“My own taste for the hops is very powerful, and I had no intention of spending a beerless weekend in the withering sun.”
— Hell’s Angels by Hunter S. Thompson
When ordering a tea in a gentrified cafe (coffee-only-shop) which doesn’t have a kettle:
“He had found a Nutri-Matic machine which had provided him with a plastic cup filled with a liquid that was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea.“
— The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
Each time I don’t make a typo but autocorrect has my back anyway:
“Don’t you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? In the end we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it.”
— 1984 by George Orwell
When a newly pregnant and painfully pleased with themselves couple excitedly extols their suburban faux ethnic food market:
“I have never seen a dead body or a female nipple. This is what comes from living in a cul de sac.”
— The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole by Sue Townsend
Here’s the list:
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Hell’s Angels by Hunter S. Thompson
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
1984 by George Orwell
The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole by Sue Townsend
You can find the full list here
Others you might like:
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Please excuse any typos as lovely proof that this writing is not supported by AI 🤖
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