quiet shelves

what I read, slowly, and what stayed with me

Rereading at the wrong age

September

Picked up a novel I loved at nineteen. Most of it held up. The parts I used to underline now feel loud, and the quiet chapters I skipped are the ones I kept thinking about afterwards.

Short stories on the tram

August

A collection small enough for a coat pocket, one story per ride. It turns out twelve minutes is almost exactly the right length for a good ending.

A used copy with notes

June

Bought a secondhand paperback and found someone else's pencil notes in the margins. We disagreed about the main character. I left my replies next to theirs.