Previous years: Lit Love #1 and Lit Love #2.
This year’s edition of Literary Love:
Octogenarian Love:
And the Birds Rained Down by Jocelyne Saucier
Love, there is only love… to explain what we don’t understand.
Enduring Love:
Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy
I shall do one thing in this life – one thing certain – that is, love you, and long for you, and keep wanting you till I die.
Unintended Love:
Away From Everywhere by Chad Pelley
There is a reason they call it falling in love. It always happens by accident, and it’s always too late once it happens. You’ve already fallen, you’re already stuck. Right or wrong.
Creepy Obsessive Love:
Naomi by Junichiro Tanizaki
… most of her value to me lay in the fact that I’d brought her up myself, that I myself had made her into the woman she was, and that only I knew every part of her body. For me Naomi was the same as a fruit that I’d cultivated myself. I’d labored hard and spared no pains to bring that piece of fruit to its present, magnificent ripeness, and it was only proper that I, the cultivator, should be the one to taste it.
Love of Knowledge:
The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert
All her life, she felt, she had lived in a state of speculation. All she had ever wanted was to know things, yet still and now – even after all these years of tireless questioning – all she did was ponder and wonder and guess.
This life is a mystery, yes, and it is often a trial, but if one can find some facts within in, one should always do so – for knowledge is the most precious of all commodities.
Long-Distance Love:
Every Blade of Grass by Thomas Wharton
Sometimes a person doesn’t really want certain things to change, even if they think they do.
… if you wait until something is a dead certainty, by that time it may just be dead.
Love Gone Wrong:
The Road To Atlantis by Leo Brent Robillard
It broke David’s heart to see his son this way, his eyes lingering on his father, squeezing everything possible from that moment. It broke his heart, because he knew that one day Matty would discover what David already knew. Everything eventually came to an end. Even love, And if it didn’t end, it twisted and became sharp and ugly, and then you simply wanted it to end.
Fairy-Tale Love:
The Douglas Notebooks by Christine Eddie
We often imagine that love must gush forth spontaneously, surround itself with disarming turmoil, and blossom with a roar. Yet love also advances with muffled tread.
Consumed by Ink 
Lovely!
Thanks! 🙂
Lovely, indeed. Even for a V Day grouch like me. 🙂
Me too. One of the reasons I like doing this post is because it always puts a smile on my face to see all the book covers and quotations. It’s a good chance to just have fun with what I’ve read. 🙂
A very nice idea for a post. Of the books on your list, I’ve only read the Hardy – many years ago now, but it’s probably my favourite of his.
I loved Far From the Madding Crowd, and wanted to squeeze some more goodness out of it. I thought about using it 3 times in this post, representing the 3 men with their different approaches to ‘loving’ Bathsheba, but in the end just went with my favourite.
Thank you for this list, Naomi. I read Elizabeth Gilbert’s ‘Big Magic’, and got to know so much about ‘The Signature of All things’. I so look forward to reading that along with ‘The Douglas Notebook’, and ‘Every Blade of Grass’. 🙂
All 3 of those books are so good, and also very different from each other. Happy Reading!
What a wonderful post! I loved reading it and it made me want yo go out and track down all of the books that you mention.
I’m so glad you liked it!
Ooohhh…the Tanizaki! and it’s title is your name! I’m afraid to ever know the details associated with that creepy quote! I could argue the Pelley quote about it always being “accidental” and “too late.” Hmmmm…some good fodder for discussion here!
Yes, the Pelley quote could easily be argued, but as one person’s point of view of what it felt like for them, I like it anyway. 🙂
I love this post! It would be really interesting to break down books by the kinds of love they depict. Do you have a favorite here? I will check out your previous years’ posts. Happy Valentine’s Day!
I love doing up these posts just so that I can think up all the different kinds of love that I’ve found in the books I’ve been reading – it’s fun!
Hmm… a favourite… so hard to choose, since most of these books have been favourites (the only exception being ‘Naomi’, which I liked but didn’t love). Agh – I can only narrow it down to And the Birds Rained Down, The Signature of All Things, Every Blade of Grass, and The Douglas Notebooks. 🙂
Love “Far From the Madding Crowd”. Truly a great read. If you must see the movie, don’t see the recent remake. The Julie Christie as Bathsheba Everdene is much better. Also I just learned that Katnis Everdeen is the heroine in “The Hunger Games”. Coincidence?
I already did see the remake, and I liked it. But, I have heard before that the Julie Christie version is better, so I will have to watch that sometime, too.
I have wondered about Katniss’s last name being Everdeen also. I can’t figure out if it’s coincidence or not. I have to admit that I’m not a big fan of Katniss, although I did enjoy the books. What do you think?
I didn’t read the books. But the movies aren’t all that great. I am getting to the point of hating when they break up one of these books into two movies. Suzanne Collins started this dystopian fiction for the juvenile audience. It’s getting to the point that most of it is not very original. Give me Harry Potter anyday.
You really can’t beat Harry Potter. 🙂
As far as “Far from the Madding Crowd”, I did not find Carey Mullingan very believable in the part.
I have to say that I really didn’t like the actor who played Troy. I was not convinced that anyone would fall for him at all.
What a great post, Naomi, but it’s not so good for my bank balance because now I want to read all these!
I know how you feel… 🙂
how wonderful this is. and you’ve chosen one of my favourite Hardy books though not my favourite line: Gabriel says to Bathsheba “And at home by the fire, whenever you look up there I shall be— and whenever I look up, there will be you.”
Another one to add to the list is Great Expectations which ends (in one version at least) with Pip’s comment about Estella who he’d worshipped for so long though she was rather beastly to him: “I saw no shadow of another parting from her'”
Good lines! Thanks for adding them. 🙂
It’s been a long time since I read Great Expectations…
I’m a V-day hater (and my anniversary is Valentine’s day!) but you got me with the Hardy quote.
Good!
I can take the day or leave it, but the kids like it, so I’ll take it for them
Happy V-Day anyway! 🙂
Hear, hear Chad Pelley!
Yes!