Bonjour!
There is the most adorable little bookshop near my apartment. It exclusively sells used books – ideal for my budget – and so far from ideal for my shelf space. Even worse, I walk by it daily coming home from work. Outside the store, they roll out large carts where every book is the same price, ranging from 1 to 5 dollars. On 1-dollar day, I almost rabidly sift through the racks looking for something appealing and several weeks ago struck gold – Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations by John Bartlett.
I’ve always been a sucker for quotes and this behemoth has been on the wish list for a long time. Originally published in 1855(!), this comprehensive collection spans from Ancient Egypt to 2012 (18th edition). On the front flap, Bartlett’s work features an endorsement from Winston Churchill that reads, “Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations is an admirable work and I studied it intently. The quotations when engraved upon the memory give you good thoughts. They also make you anxious to read the authors and look for more.” Frankly, that’s my inspiration for this blog – quotes give me good thoughts.
To share an early favorite from Bartlett (what the true fans call it) after a few weeks of occasionally flipping through, this is from Edgar Allen Poe:
“Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night.”
Planning a second post took me several hours, as most 5-minute tasks do, because my art, my special power, is dreaming when I shouldn’t be. This is no “dream big” type dreaming, it’s much less useful. I find a comfort in daydreaming though, and Poe’s adage confirms I am not alone. Somewhere out there are (day)dreamers like me – proficient in self-distraction – I only hope they see my blog and know they are not alone.
Happy daydreaming friends!
The Quotation Mark 