Candi recommended The Storied Life Of A. J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin to me on Goodreads and I’m glad she did. I strongly recommend it for book lovers! It’s a story about a bookseller. It’s about how books affect our daily lives. It has some twists which you’ll quickly figure out. It will make you cry (at least it did make me cry). It’s about new beginnings. It gives some excellent points on digital books as well. It will make you want to read more. In Nina Kenwood‘s review she said, “The less you expect from this quiet book, the more you’ll find.”, remember that.

The Highlights

Remember, Maya: the things we respond to at twenty are not necessarily the same things we will respond to at forty and vice versa. This is true in books and also in life.

You’ll notice I didn’t call you right away, Amelia,” he says. “I didn’t call you because I had met someone better, and when that didn’t work out, I decided to give you a second chance. So don’t be thinking you’re superior. You’ve got a decent smile, I’ll give you that, but your teeth are too big and so is your ass and you’re not twenty-five anymore even if you drink like you are. You shouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth.

Amelia the bright-sider believes it is better to be alone than to be with someone who doesn’t share your sensibilities and interests. (It is, right?)

In Amelia’s experience, most people’s problems would be solved if they would only give more things a chance.

The tough rose mouth says No one can hurt me, but the soft blue eyes say Yes you can and you probably will

…what, in this life, is more personal than books?

The difficulty of living alone is that any mess he makes he is forced to clean up himself. No, the real difficulty of living alone is that no one cares if you are upset.

There’s nothing more elegant in the prose universe than a short story.

Remember that a fine education can be found in places other than the usual.

What is your favorite book?

You know everything you need to know about a person from the answer to the question, What is your favorite book?

“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.”

We read to know we’re not alone. We read because we are alone. We read and we are not alone. We are not alone.

We aren’t the things we collect, acquire, read. We are, for as long as we are here, only love. The things we loved. The people we loved. And these, I think these really do live on.

Now, tell me, what is your favorite book?