eco lee quote header

————

“You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view … Until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it.”

 

=

 

Harper Lee

 

 

——————–

 

 

“I think an author should write what the reader does not expect. The problem is not to ask what they need, but to change them … to produce the kind of reader you want for each story.”

 

=

 

Umberto Eco

 

 

——

 

 

Within 24 hours two authors, whose books are a must have on any decent book shelf, died. With their passing I ended up taking the their two most must have books, To Kill a Mockingbird and Foucault’s Pendulum, off my own shelf to reread for the umpteenth time.

 

 

sin to kill a mockingbirdHarper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird is my favorite book of all time and the one that most likely set me on the path mentally on ‘doing what is right despite the odds.’

 

Umberto Eco’s Foucault’s Pendulum <which I loved much more than In the Name of the Rose> was one of my first, and favorite, intellectual mind bending books.

 

 

As Lee suggested you never really understand a person until you climb into his skin and walk around in it. Both of these authors seemed to weave characters in which you walked around in justice, truth, fear, wisdom, decency, bravery, cowardice, empathy and whatever human characteristic each of us have faced … sometimes well and sometimes not so well.

 

And both taught us respect for hope in what resides within us to be our best, and worst, and still find that … well … we still are standing at the end.

 

 

I would like to believe both authors will not be remembered for their complications, but for the simplicity they offered us in the big choices in Life.

 

Do the right thing or do the wrong thing.

 

 

While one walked us thru the path as moral beings the other tended to walk us thru that path intellectually.

 

And that is why both of their books reside on my shelf.

 

 

They remind me that we will face so many big choices in Life and there is no formula for making the right & good choice … you can face them intellectually or morally or in any combination you would like. But in the end you make a choice.

 

 

===

 

 

“I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. umberto eco quote

It’s when you know you’re licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what.”

 

Harper Lee

===

 

 

They may have stopped breathing but their books are immortal. And their books will not only continue to take our breath away each time we read them but give us new air to breathe.

 

==

“Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing.”

Harper Lee

==

Rest in peace Harper & Umberto.

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Written by Bruce