comfort books

When you're feeling down and it seems the world has gone weird on you and it's like you are drowning in your own world and you only want to be left alone and wallow in your solitude.... that is the time you look for something that will inspire you or comfort you. and I found it in two people I have not met but completely inspired me... Ha Jin (author of The Crazed) and Bill Waterson (Cartoonist, Calvin and Hobbes)

"The Crazed" was a book that literally talked to my soul. There were phrases there that provided answers or clarifications to my own quandaries. Weird as it may sound but the novel was like about myself, my story at present. Just like what happened to Jian, when he was forced to take care of his professor who was hospitalized because of a stroke, he was so sure of himself, he knew what he wanted and he was determined to achieve his dreams. But after listening to his professor's ramblings, he lost himself in the process and started to wonder if what he thought was the "right" thing for him (e.g being a scholar) was what he really wanted or if this will make him happy and fulfilled. In the end he was forced to take a path less taken but he was more wiser and more sure that the road ahead will bring him the satisfaction he is looking for. It seems that there is a "Jian" and a little of the "professor" in all of us that questions the very existence of our being and how best we can make do with what we have. Call it "crazy" but we all go through the same thing once or more than in our lifetime. It is quite scary when a certain situation or event in your life can completely change everything. But just by reading the book I felt older but somewhat wiser... but right now I'm still fighting with my own demons...

Prior to "Milenyo" I spent a whole day reading Calvin and Hobbes. Who would have thought that a cartoon can bring so much joy and inspiration to someone who has become cynical and skeptic about the world. I remembered my favorite book "The Little Prince", we really need to keep in touch with the child within us. Anyway the exchanges between Calvin and Hobbes were really fascinating because the topics were so profound. You also have to love the snowman arts that Calvin makes and how he talks to the monsters under his bed. But you know it is so nice that despite his "quirks" and naughtiness, Calvin is a well-loved child. He is actually a down to earth kid, creative and very intelligent. Suddenly I miss my childhood and the innocence of being a child.... Anyway here are some lines from the comic book that will make you think and smile as well... Enjoy!!!

"There's no problem so awful that you can't add some guilt to it and make it even worse!"
-Calvin
"So the secret to good self-esteem is to lower your expectations to the point where they're already met?"
-Calvin
"I don't know which is worse, ...that everyone has his price, or that the price is always so low."
-Calvin
"When I grow up, I'm not going to read the newspaper and I'm not going to follow complex issues and I'm not going to vote. That way I can complain when the government doesn't represent me. Then, when everything goes down the tubes, I can say the system doesn't work and justify my further lack of participation."
-Calvin
"The secret to happiness is short-term, stupid self-interest!"
-Calvin
"The strength to change what I can, the inability to accept what I can't, and the incapacity the tell the difference."
-Calvin
"Everybody I know needs a complete personality overhaul!"
-Calvin
"I used to hate writing assignments, but now I enjoy them. I realized that the purpose of writing is to inflate weak ideas, obscure poor reasoning, and inhibit clarity. With a little practice, writing can be an intimidating and impenetrable fog!"
-Calvin
"You know how people are. They only recognize greatness when some authority confirms it."
-Calvin
"History is the fiction we invent to persuade ourselves that events are knowable and that life has order and direction. That's why events are always reinterpreted when values change. We need new versions of history to allow for our current prejudices."
-Calvin
"As far as I'm concerned, if something is so complicated that you can't explain it in 10 seconds, then it's probably not worth knowing anyway."
-Calvin
"People think it must be fun to be a super genius, but they don't realize how hard it is to put up with all the idiots in the world."
-Calvin
"Life is like topography, Hobbes. There are summits of happiness and success... ...Flat stretches of boring routine... ...And valleys of frustration and failure."
-Calvin
"Reading goes faster if you don't sweat comprehension."
-Calvin
"What I like is when you're looking and thinking and looking and thinking... And suddenly you wake up."
-Calvin
"There's never enough time to do all the nothing you want."
-Calvin
"There's more o this world than just people, you know."
-Hobbes
"Why should I have to WORK for everything?! It's like saying I don't deserve it!"
-Calvin
"I muts obey the inscrutable exhortations of my soul."
-Calvin
"I go to school, but I never learn what I want to know."
-Calvin
"To make a bad day worse, spend it wishing for the impossible."
-Calvin
"If you couldn't find any weirdness, maybe we'll just have to make some!"
-Hobbes
"Weekends don't count unless you spend them doing something completely pointless."
-Calvin
"If you do the job badly enough, sometimes you don't get asked to do it again."
-Calvin
"Reality continues to ruin my life."
-Calvin
"I hate to think that all my current experiences will someday become stories with no point."
-Calvin
"Do you hate being a girl? What's it like? Is it like being a bug?
I imagine bugs and girls have a dim perception that nature played a cruel trick on them, but they lack the intelligence to comrehend the magnitude of it."
-Calvin
"Childhood is short, maturity is forever."
-Calvin
"I don't need to compromise my principles, because they don't have the slightest bearing on what happens to me anyway."
-Calvin
"True friends are hard to come by...I need more money."
-Calvin
"Do you hate being a girl? What's it like? Is it like being a bug?
I imagine bugs and girls have a dim perception that nature played a cruel trick on them, but they lack the intelligence to comrehend the magnitude of it."
-Calvin
"In my opinion, we don't devote nearly enough scientific research to finding a cure for jerks."
-Calvin
"Why waste time learning, when ignorance is instantaneous?"
-Calvin