Alibis: Essays on Elsewhere | 
bailedI gave this a little more time than I should have, hoping that something would click, but as other reviews mention, it starts off strong before descending into meandering rants that he clearly thinks are very important, but I quickly grew tired of. I'd like to give the personal essay genre another go, though, if anyone has recommendations.
Yes please 🤣🤣🤣🙌ðŸ½ðŸ“šðŸ“šðŸ“š
bailedSo f*****g boring. I understand that these are the author‘s thoughts, but I hate the feeling of the author not knowing themselves throughout each piece. I can tolerate “what ifs†but not the sense of not knowing yourself.
"No disguise can forever hide love when it exists, or simulate it when it doesnt." ~ François VI, Duc de La Rochefoucauld, Prince de Marcillac, French author of maxims and memoirs.
"What happens to life when we're not there to live it?"
Loved this chapter of Andre Aciman's Alibis: Essays On Elsewhere. He starts the chapter by talking about a "hidden nerve" and asking "don't all writers have a hidden nerve? And yet it's also the first thing every writer learns to sidestep..."
Is it #NationalReadingDay or not?
Oh, who I kidding? This is Litsy - every day is reading day! Celebrate, you bookish people!
Today's #libraryhaul is brought to you mainly by Andre Aciman. Because I'm becoming mildly obsessed.
“The better a writer, the better he erases his footprints- yet the better the writer, the more he wants us to intuit and put back those parts he chose to hide. With the right hunch, you could read the inflection of an author‘s soul on a single comma, in one sentence, and from that one sentence seize the whole book, his life work.â€
I am in my room reading and as always shielding myself from the outside world desperately using books as an imaginary screen...
pickOne of the best things about my 2017 reading life has been the discovery of my love of essays. I now want to read the best collections that I can find. I love Aciman‘s writing style and his perspectives. I am always thankful to find someone who speaks my emotional language, that I am not alone in my thinking. The book did become tedious towards the end, more of the same but overall I loved it. 🌟🌟🌟🌟
Serenity is the feeling of being one with the world, of having nothing to wish for, of lacking for nothing...of being entirely in the present. (I want this.)
so-soI highlighted some passages, especially near the beginning. He definitely captures a few travel feels well. But.... maybe his writing isn't my style because a lot of it felt a little pretentious.
#travelessays #travel #readharder #nonfiction #globetrotter
Last quote (just because I'm on the last essay). Travel high is finally wearing off too, so here's a final pic of my vacation. "What we ultimately remember is not the past but ourselves in the past imaging the future. And, frequently, what we look forward to is not the future but the past restored."
Another pic from vacay as I continue Aciman and wish I was still on vacay: "it is always love that catches us unawares, exiles, tourists, and nomads alike. We walk about a dreamy town on a scalding hot day and as we're plotting the indifferent itinerary of a possible return trip in years to come, it suddenly hits us, as always obliquely, that this is love, isn't it? That it is really love we bring when we thought we were bringing nothing at all.."
Shot of Dublin from a few days ago. This is always how I feel in a big city -- "I liked [...] especially in the early evening when the shops were all aglow and people were coming back from work, running last-minute errands, sometimes with children in tow, the bustling traffic of people giving the sidewalks a heady feel I grew to love, if only because it seemed rife with prospects for the evening I already knew were false."
pickGorgeous writing. Such great essays on memory, being present (not sure if that is even possible) and belonging. #BookRiotReadHarder
This book is everything.
Oh my gosh, Aciman is in my head. I do this obsessively, annoyingly, when I travel. I can't help it.
I agree with this as a descendant of immigrants to New York.
So done with today in every possible way. Heading to bed with my next read 😴
Someone told me I should read this book ... so ...
"Sometimes it is in blind ritual and not faith that we encounter the sacred, the way it is habit not character makes us who we are. Sometimes the clothes and scents we wear have more of us in them than we do ourselves."
I live in the dark so as not to be blinded when darkness comes.
I'm currently reading Alibis. Reading "Reflections of an Uncertain Jew" as an atheist while sitting in a Catholic church added multiple layers to an already layered text. Gorgeous, gorgeous writing
I've already felt all of the emotions and I'm only one essay in.
