I wasn't 20 pages into THE BOOK OF THREE before I had to go get my stickie notes. I had forgotten how much wisdom Alexander packs into these books:
"In some cases, we learn more by looking for the answer to a question and not finding it than we do from learning the answer itself." p.18
"Well, that is one of the three foundations of learning: see much, study much, suffer much." p.19
"The task counts more than the one who does it." p.31
"I have never known courage to be judged by the length of a man's hair. Or, for the matter of that, whether he has any hair at all." p. 36
"Every living thing deserves our respect, be it humble or proud, ugly or beautiful." p. 142
"Neither refuse to give help when it is needed, nor refuse to accept it when it is offered." p. 143
"Once you have the courage to look upon evil, seeing it for what it is and naming it by its true name, it is powerless against you, and you can destroy it." p. 211-212
"As for me, what I mostly did was make mistakes." Dallben's reply to this, in part, reads, "If you made mistakes, you recognize them. As I told you, there a times when the seeking counts more than the finding.
Does it truly matter which of you did what, since all shared the same goal and the same danger? Nothing we do is ever done entirely alone. There is a part of us in everyone else -- you, of all people, should know that." p. 217-218
Okay, so I'm just popping around checking up on the 48HBC progress, and I caught your entry -- I had just been talking with my daughter about the Prydain Chronicles, and how I loved them (my younger brother turned me on to them, so I didn't really read them until high school), and how I'd have to get copies of them for her to read.
ReplyDeleteThen I heard about Alexander's death, and I though about how timely our discussion had been.
I just wanted to say that I think your goal is admirable, and sometime when I have a chance to read, I think I'll follow suit.
-- Bill (MR's husband/editor)
I have gradually picked up the Chronicles of Prydain from second hand book shops and adding them to the couple I still owned from when I was a kid. We read them to the my 8yo son earlier this year. They are wonderful books.
ReplyDeleteEnjoy re-reading them!