I may turn into a book blogger yet....

I am currently reading The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery, and I came across the following paragraphs that I just loved. So...I had to share them. Florinda--you are right--you may yet turn me into a book blogger!

"The cherry plum test is extraordinary for its disarming clarity. It derives its power from a universal observation: when man bites into the fruit, at last he understands. What does he understand? Everything. He understands how the human species, given only to survival, slowly matured and arrived one fine day at an intuition of pleasure, the vanity of all the artificial appetites that divert one from one's initial aspiration toward the virtues of simple and sublime things, the pointlessness of discourse, the slow and terrible degradation of multiple worlds from which no one can escape and, in spite of all that, the wonderful sweetness of the senses when they conspire to teach mankind pleasure and the terrifying beauty of Art.

The cherry plum test is held in my kitchen. I place the fruit and the book on the Formica table, and as I pick up the former to taste it, I also start on the latter. If each resists the powerful onslaught of the other, if the cherry plum fails to make me doubt the text and if the text is unable to spoil the fruit, then I know that I am in the presence of a worthwhile and, why not say it, exceptional undertaking, for there are very few works that have not dissolved--proven both ridiculous and complacent--into the extraordinary succulence of the little golden plums."

Ahhhh, I love food and so take great delight in the idea of measuring the worthiness of literature against the perfection of a single piece of fruit. Food and reading--two of my favorite things in the world. Brilliant, I say, just brilliant.

He's all boy....

Any doubts I had about my son being raised in a very female-influenced household have now been laid to rest. To wit:

1. He just watched a video of a boy screaming for 30 seconds while said boy (not son) farts 5 times, then falls on the stairs. "Mom, this is so cool--you've got to see this...." Although he did watch it only 8 times in a row. (Gee, thanks iCarly.com).

2. While playing solo video games, he acts as his own announcer: "No one has ever defeated E_____; he steals right, then left...oh no, here comes the cheese. Hah!--E_____ is victorious again......" etc. etc. etc.

Tuesday Teasers on Thursday.

Teaser Tuesdays, hosted at Should Be Reading, asks you to:

Grab your current read.

Let the book fall open to a random page.

Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.

You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given.

I'm sick, so no rebellious poetry or snarky comments. Just the quote, ma'am; just the quote.

"I wonder if it wouldn't be simpler just to teach children from the start that life is absurd. That might deprive you of a few good moments of your childhood but it would save you considerable time as an adult--not to mention the fact that you'd be spared at least one traumatic experience, i.e. the goldfish bowl." p. 23

From The Elegance of the Hedgehog, by Muriel Barbery.