book 5...check

"Were she better or you sicker, then the stars would not be so terribly crossed, but is the nature of stars to cross and never was Shakespeare more wrong than when he had Cassius note, 'The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars / but in ourselves.' Easy enough to say when you're a Roman nobleman (or Shakespeare!), but there is no shortage of fault to be found amid our stars."

This is a quote from the incredible "The Fault in our Stars" by John Green - my latest read and one that felt almost sacred somehow. I found myself reading sections, pausing, turning corners so I could go back and re-read again. I laughed and cried and felt honored to take part in the story even as a simple bystander captivated by the intricate weaving of words. I read the book in one day. It could not be helped. The rest of this post shall be comprised of my favorite pauses from the tale of a young love that would be far too short in a world that is far too cruel.

"It seemed like forever ago, like we'd had this brief but still infinite forever."

"I am in love with you, and I'm not in the business of denying myself the simple pleasure of saying true things. I'm in love with you..."

"You say you're not special because the world doesn't know about you, but that is an insult to me. I know about you."

"It occurred to me that the voracious ambition of humans is never sated by dreams coming true, because there is always the thought that everything might be done better and again."

"She is beautiful. You don't get tired of looking at her. You never worry if she is smarter than you: You know she is. She is funny without ever being mean. I love her. I am so lucky to love her. You don't get to choose if you get hurt in this world, but you do have some say in who hurts you. I like my choices. I hope she likes hers."

"There are infinite numbers between 0 and 1. There's .1 and .12 and.112 and an infinite collection of others. Of course, there is a bigger infinite set of numbers between 0 and 2 or 0 and a million. Some infinities are bigger than other infinities. There are days, many of them, when I resent the size of my unbounded set. I want more numbers than I'm likely to get and I want more numbers for Augustus Waters than he got. But Gus, my love, I cannot tell you how thankful I am for our little infinity. I wouldn't trade it for the world. You gave me forever within the numbered days, and I'm grateful."

And just to finish this off on a slightly lighter note...

"Do you know what Dom Perignon said after inventing champagne? 'Come quickly: I am tasting the stars'."

Now it's your turn to read the 313 pages that surround this gorgeous and heavily weighted piece of fiction. Or if books aren't really your thing, I'm pleased to announce that it will be coming to a theatre near you in June.