Elizabeth McCracken - The Giant's House (1996)

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Unrequited love–plain desperate aboveboard boy-chasing–turned you into a salesperson, and what you were selling was something he didn't want, couldn't use, would never miss. Unrequited love was deciding to be useless, and I could never abide uselessness.

Elizabeth McCracken
And while I was not an admirer of people in the specific, I liked them in the abstract. It is only the execution of the idea that disappoints.

Elizabeth McCracken
In reference works, as in sin, omission is as bad as willful misbehavior.

Elizabeth McCracken
Engagements — they are like a prayer before eating, best quick.

Elizabeth McCracken
Truthfully, this is the fabric of all my fantasies: love shown not by a kiss or a wild look or a careful hand but by a willingness for research. i don't dream of someone who understands me immediately, who seems to have known me my entire life, who says, i know me too. i want someone keen to learn my own strange organization, amazed at what's revealed; someone who asks, and then what, and then what?

Elizabeth McCracken
Library books were, I suddenly realized, promiscuous, ready to lie down in the arms of anyone who asked. Not like bookstore books, which married their purchasers, or were brokered for marriages to others.

Elizabeth McCracken
Fire is a speed reader, which is why the ignorant burn books: fire races through pages, takes care of all the knowledge, and never bores you with a summary.

Elizabeth McCracken
Librarian like Stewardess, Certified Public Accountant, Used Car Salesman is one of those occupations that people assume attract a certain deformed personality.

Elizabeth McCracken