read between my lines, she said

"'You are one-third friend, one-third brother, one-third bee-partner, and one-third boyfriend,' I told him. He explained to me I had one too many thirds in the equation, which, of course, I knew, as I am bad in math but not that bad. We stared at each other as I tried to figure out which third would get deleted."

-Lily, The Secret Life of Bees

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That is probably my favorite quote from that entire book. I underline my books like a fiend, so I can always flip through them and quickly rediscover favorite lines. It's the best when you've kind of forgotten them, and then they hit you all over again when you stumble upon them.

The way I underline has kind of evolved. The first book I remember underlining was "The Prophet" by Kahlil Gibran. I found a line that touched me so deeply that I had to differentiate it from the rest of the book. I remember it still, "to know the pain of too much tenderness." So I underlined it, to keep it.

Next was Henry and June by Anais Nin. I also connected so deeply with that book, but stuck to a rule: only underlining things that, were I not with a pen in my hand, would take my breath away for being something different from everything else in the book. I remember the first quote I underlined in the book, Nin's views on people who are very sensitive and how they are often misunderstood as being insincere, when really they're just trying too hard to be kind. I loved that, it hit home so well with me.

After that book, I think I just went underline-crazy. When I read now, sometimes a whole page is underlined sans about two sentences. I write in the margins, things that don't even have to do with the book sometimes, or complete over-analyzations of a word or a sentence. I often have to remind myself to only underline the exceptional lines, but sometimes it's hard when almost every line feels exceptional. 

Sometimes now I don't let myself underline certain books. It feels nice to just read through them without worrying about underlining them, and I'm finding that each book has about one passage that stands out to me so beautifully. And if I went back to my old ways of underlining, it would be the only thing underlined in the entire book, blue ball point stars on the side.

My Darling From the Lions was filled to the brim with exceptional lines, and I didn't underline, but there is still one passage, which I cannot quote here, that means so much to me.

I guess that's all for now, then! I hope you all have a lovely wednesday.

Love,

me