A Giveaway I Must Win...Must....Win

I was paging through blogs I read this morning when I came across this giveaway. I don't usually enter them, thinking along the lines that someone else might need whatever is being given away more than I would...but Mary has been given two sony readers, one for herself and one for a giveaway winner.

AND I NEED THAT READER. I've wanted a reader since Kindle came out years ago. I need it, I want it and I don't like to spend money on myself ever...so I must win it.

The giveaway has rules though...and I'm so bad at the rules thing. I had to pick a quote from a novel and why it means something to me and comment about it on her page. I can get a second entry by blogging about the giveaway and sharing another comment from a book here on my blog.

The quote I referenced in the comment of her blog was this:

Peter: Forget them, Wendy. Forget them all. Come with me where you’ll never, never have to worry about grown up things again.

Wendy: Never is an awfully long time.

I remember reading this as a small girl and being completely torn by the concept. We all have to grow up, but it’s so hard to let go of the joys and ease of childhood. I was comforted (and still am) by the idea that just like Wendy, we can always think of Peter and his infinite childhood when we find ourselves longing for it.

This next quote is from The Lake of Dead Languages by Carol Goodman:

"I try to remember caring that much for a boy--I almost see a face--but it's like trying to remember labor pains, you remember the symptoms of pain--the blurred vision, the way your mind moves in an ever tightening circle around a nucleus so dense gravity itself seems to bend toward it--but not the pain itself."

When I read this I had one of those 'you took the words right out of my mouth' moments. It was a perfect and accurate description of both being stricken with love pains...or labor pains.

Now now now, I know those two choices aren't necessarily very cerebral. But alas and oh well, those are the first two that came to mind. My favorite novel is The Magus by John Fowles and my Daddy's favorite is The French Lieutenants Woman also by John Fowles so to close this post I will leave you with a quote, actually a little tale, told by our aforementioned favorite author:

"Once upon a time there was a young prince who believed in all things but three. He did not believe in princesses, he did not believe in islands, he did not believe in God. His father, the king, told him that such things did not exist. As there were no princesses or islands in his father's domains, and no sign of God, the young prince believed his father.

But then, one day, the prince ran away from his palace. He came to the next land. There, to his astonishment, from every coast he saw islands, and on these islands, strange and troubling creatures whom he dared not name. As he was searching for a boat, a man in full evening dress approached him along the shore.

'Are those real islands?' asked the young prince.

'Of course they are real islands,' said the man in evening dress.

'And those strange and troubling creatures?'

'They are all genuine and authentic princesses.'

'Then God must exist!' cried the prince.

'I am God,' replied the man in full evening dress, with a bow.

The young prince returned home as quickly as he could.

'So you are back,' said the father, the king.

'I have seen islands, I have seen princesses, I have seen God,' said the prince reproachfully.

The king was unmoved.

'Neither real islands, nor real princesses, I have seen God,' said the prince reproachfully.

The king was unmoved.

'Neither real islands, nor real princesses, nor a real God exist.'

'I saw them!'

'Tell me how God was dressed.'

'God was in full evening dress.'

'Were the sleeves of his coat rolled back?'

The prince remembered that they had been. The king smiled.

'That is the uniform of a magician. You have been deceived.'

At this, the prince returned to the next land, and went to the same shore, where once again he came upon the man in full evening dress.

'My father the king has told me who you are,' said the young prince indignantly. 'You deceived me last time, but not again. Now I know that those are not real islands and real princesses, because you are a magician.'

The man on the shore smiled.

'It is you who are deceived, my boy. In your father's kingdom there are many islands and many princesses. But you are under your father's spell, so you cannot see them.'

The prince pensively returned home. When he saw his father, he looked him in the eyes.

'Father, is it true that you are not a real king, but only a magician?'

The king smiled, and rolled back his sleeves.

'Yes, my son, I am only a magician.'

'Then the man on the shore was God.'

'The man on the shore was another magician.'

'I must know the real truth, the truth beyond magic.'

'There is no truth beyond magic,' said the king.

The prince was full of sadness.

He said, 'I will kill myself.'

The king by magic caused death to appear. Death stood in the door and beckoned to the prince. The prince shuddered. He remembered the beautiful but unreal islands and the unreal but beautiful princesses.

'Very well,' he said. 'I can bear it.'

'You see, my son,' said the king, 'you too now begin to be a magician.'"

-John Fowles