Don Quixote by Miguel De Cervantes
Translated by Edith Grossman
đź“– 141/939
(Also, Changeling by Matt Wesolowski: đź“– 104/234)
Except for this one. This one’s new - a gift from about a month ago. I suppose you could say it’s been sitting on the to-be-read shelf of my mind for years.
I’m not sure what it is with me and tackling big, long books this year: Dune, The Way of Kings, Moby-Dick.
Six weeks for one of these novels. Months this year for them collectively.
But now I've got a wild hair to read this next:
It wasn’t part of the “plan” (and I use that term loosely) to read this year, but here we are. I’m not even sure I’ll like it.
I’m going in blind — I know of it, but not about it. Maybe that’s the best way.
Notes along the (reading) way:
This book is hilarious. I had no idea it was so funny! And sad. It's kind of sad too.
Sancho is the best.
Quotes:
All quotes come from the Edith Grossman translation Cervantes' Don Quixote.
"In short, our gentleman became so caught up in reading that he spent his nights reading from dusk till dawn and his days reading from sunrise to sunset, and so with too little sleep and too much reading his brains dried up, causing him to lose his mind." (p. 21)
"Don Quixote did not sleep at all that night but thought of his lady Dulcinea, in order to conform to what he had read in his books of knights spending many sleepless nights in groves and meadows..." (pp. 60-61)
"Besides, if truth be told, what I eat, even if it’s bread and onion, tastes much better to me in my corner without fancy or respectful manners, than a turkey would at other tables where I have to chew slowly, not drink too much, wipe my mouth a lot, not sneeze or cough if I feel like it, or do other things that come with solitude and freedom." (p. 76)
"I deserve to have clouds fill the fair sky of your eyes when you hear of my death, forbid it, for I want you unrepentant, without remorse, when I hand to you the ruins of my soul..." (p. 97)
"Well, like they say, you need a long time to know a person, and nothing in this life is certain." (p. 106)
"...he struggled to his feet, threw his arms around Maritornes, and the two of them began the fiercest and most laughable scuffle the world has ever seen." (pp. 114-115)
"For I must tell you, Sancho, that a mouth without molars is like a mill without a millstone, and dentation is to be valued much more than diamonds." (p. 133)