˝Mr. Fikry, don’t you turn th...

"Mr. Fikry, don’t you turn those Omar Sharif eyes of yours on me. I am outraged at you." - P45

On the floor sits a baby with the store’s lone copy of Where the Wild Things Are (one of the few picture books Island even deigns to carry) in its lap and opened to the middle. It is a large baby, A.J. thinks. Not a newborn. - P47

"Not books. I have those from my dad." "You’re lucky," John says. "I wish I lived in the bookstore." "I live above it, not in it, and it’s not that great." "I bet it is." - P182

If something is good and universally acknowledged to be so, this is not reason enough to dislike it. (Side note: It has taken me all afternoon to write this sentence. My brain kept making hash of the phrase "universally acknowledged.") - P188

"Oh, all kinds, but my favorite kind of book is the kind where a character has hardships but overcomes them in the end. I know life isn’t like that. Maybe that is why it is my favorite thing." - P194

A sentence occurs to her: The day my father shook my hand, I knew I was a writer. - P195

To the Owner of This Bookstore: This is Maya. She is twenty-five months old. She is VERY SMART, exceptionally verbal for her age, and a sweet, good girl. I want her to grow up to be a reader. I want her to grow up in a place with books and among people who care about those kinds of things. I love her very much, but I can no longer take care of her. The father cannot be in her life, and I do not have a family that can help. I am desperate. Yours, Maya’s Mother Fuck, A.J. thinks. Maya cries again. - P50

A.J. towels her hair then gives her head an appraising sniff. "I worry for you. If you love everyone, you’ll end up having hurt feelings most of the time. I suppose, relative to the length of your life, you feel as if you’ve known me a rather long time. Your perspective of time is really very warped, Maya. But I am old and soon, you’ll forget you even knew me." - P63

A.J. towels her hair then gives her head an appraising sniff. "I worry for you. If you love everyone, you’ll end up having hurt feelings most of the time. I suppose, relative to the length of your life, you feel as if you’ve known me a rather long time. Your perspective of time is really very warped, Maya. But I am old and soon, you’ll forget you even knew me." - P63

Back when Nic was alive, Island used to offer free gift wrap at Christmas, and he figures that diaper changing and gift-wrapping must be related proficiencies. - P50

Maya watches him with a cocked head, pursed lips, and a wrinkled nose. - P50

In the fifteen or so years he has known her, A.J. thinks Ismay has aged like an actress should: from Juliet to Ophelia to Gertrude to Hecate. - P53

Ismay shrugs. "The girl probably had her reasons." "How do you know that it’s a girl?" A.J. asks. "It could be a middle-aged woman at the end of her rope." "The voice of the letter sounds young to me, I guess. Maybe the handwriting, too." Ismay says. She runs her fingers through her short hair. "How are you holding up otherwise?" - P54

Lights, bright enough to dila...

Lights, bright enough to dilate her eyes. Horns, flaccid and come too late. Metal crumpling like tissue. The body was not in pain but only because the body was gone, elsewhere. - P169

No one will ever love me that much again. - P177

"She had a crush on him when she was little," A.J. says to Amelia. - P177

"Your first literary crush is a big deal," Amelia says. "Mine was John Irving." - P177

Later that night, Maya finds a slip of paper under her door: Maya, If you’re stuck, reading helps: "The Beauties" by Anton Chekhov, "The Doll’s House" by Katherine Mansfield, "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" by J. D. Salinger, "Brownies" or "Drinking Coffee Elsewhere" both by ZZ Packer, "In the Cemetery Where Al Jolson Is Buried" by Amy Hempel, "Fat" by Raymond Carver, "Indian Camp" by Ernest Hemingway. We should have them all downstairs. Just ask if you can’t find anything, though you know where everything is better than I. Love, Dad - P178

Maya makes a face.

Maya makes a face. - P152

He thinks he is never wrong. Maybe he never is wrong. - P154

I will keep this secret because I love you. As Leon Friedman (Leonora Ferris?) once wrote, "A good marriage is, at least, one part conspiracy." - P155

"He knows she isn’t perfect. She knows he definitely isn’t perfect. They know there’s no such thing as perfect." - P156

"It is the secret fear that we are unlovable that isolates us," the passage goes, "but it is only because we are isolated that we think we are unlovable. Someday, you do not know when, you will be driving down a road. And someday, you do not know when, he, or indeed she, will be there. You will be loved because for the first time in your life, you will truly not be alone. You will have chosen to not be alone." - P156

When she smiles, she’s all gums. - P162

[얼굴이 창백한 보조교사였다. 코트도 마음도 몸도 두...

[얼굴이 창백한 보조교사였다. 코트도 마음도 몸도 두뇌까지도 너덜너덜해진 그의 모습이 지금도 눈앞에 선하다. 그는 언제나 낡은 사전과 문법책을 내놓고, 세상에 알려져 있는 모든 나라의 화려한 국기가 요란하게 그려진 이상한 모양의 손수건으로 먼지를 떨어내고 있었다. 그는 낡은 문법책의 먼지를 떠는 일을 좋아했는데, 그 일을 하면서 죽음을 피할 수 없는 자신의 운명을 조용히 생각하고 있는 듯했다.] - <모비 딕-전면 개역판>, 허먼 멜빌 지음 l 김석희 옮김 - 밀리의 서재
https://www.millie.co.kr/v3/bookDetail/7c704e5807724c2d - P18

독자들도 보면 알겠지만, 부지런한 두더지나 굼벵이처럼 가련한 이 사서 보조의 조수는 바티칸 도서관 같은 큰 도서관들과 이 세상의 길거리 책방들을 찾아다니면서, 거룩한 책이거나 속된 책이거나 간에 어떤 책에서든 그가 찾을 수 있는 고래에 관한 것이면 무엇이든 닥치는 대로 수집했음을 알 수 있다. 따라서 이 발췌록은 고래에 관한 언급이라면 무엇이든 모아놓은 것에 불과하므로, 그 언급들 가운데 권위가 있어 보이는 것이 있다 하더라도 이 발췌록을 진정한 고래학으로 받아들여서는 안 된다. 그건 어림도 없는 일이다. 인용된 고대의 저자들이나 시인들에 대해 살펴보건대, 이 발췌록은 우리 자신을 포함한 수많은 민족과 수많은 세대의 사람들이 그 레비아탄3에 대해 어떻게 말하고, 어떻게 생각하고, 어떻게 상상하고, 어떻게 노래했는지를 조감할 수 있게 해준다는 점에서 어떤 가치나 흥미가 있을 뿐이다. - <모비 딕-전면 개역판>, 허먼 멜빌 지음 l 김석희 옮김 - 밀리의 서재
https://www.millie.co.kr/v3/bookDetail/7c704e5807724c2d - P22

When Amelia comes to pitch th...

When Amelia comes to pitch the fall list, she stays for two weeks. She wears seersucker shorts and flip-flops adorned with daisies. - P134

They settle on a 1960s era ring with a diamond in the middle and a setting made out of enamel petals. "Like a daisy," Maya says. "Amy likes flowers and happy things." A.J. thinks the ring is a bit gaudy, but he knows Maya is right—this is the one Amelia would pick, the one that will make her happy. At the very least, the ring will match her flip-flops. - P138

In the back row sits the woman who hadn’t had a lighter. She wears a floppy gray fedora and a silky maxidress. Her clothes look like they could be from a thrift shop, but Amelia, who actually shops in thrift shops, recognizes them as expensive. - P148

"I . . ." Amelia looks at the woman. She has kind eyes. Amelia has often been fooled by kind eyes. - P149

"The truth is, he did it for me. It was the first book we loved together." - P150

"Leonora Ferris." "Leonora. Like Leon," Maya pipes up. She has had a milkshake and is now recovered. "I am Maya Fikry." - P150

All at once, Amelia is struck with a thought. She turns around and calls, "No one travels without purpose. Those who are lost wish to be lost." "You’re quoting The Late Bloomer," Leonora says after a long pause. "It really was your favorite." "It was," Amelia says. " ‘When I was young, I never felt young.’ Something like that. Do you remember the rest of the quote?" - P151