Saturday, January 26, 2013

Favorite Book: The Blue Castle


The Blue Castle

I liked doing the favorites last weekend, so here comes another favorite.  It is hard to just pick a favorite book.  But this one is really one that I have had as a favorite for a long long time and it has become my standard answer when someone asks what my favorite book is.

So what makes it my favorite?  It is the perfect romance.  She is too old to be marriage worthy anymore, and fears she will die an old maid.  And she is in the worst family ever...they are too strict and boring for her and she won't stand up to it.  Then she has a medical diagnosis that leaves her with just months to live.  So she throws away everything she knows and with new confidence does anything she wants.  She is going to die soon so what's the point of living life boring.  As part of her new found confidence she marries the man her family would not pick for her.  I won't spoil the ending because it is the best part.  I will only say this--he married her because it would be short, and he starts to fall in love with her.  What will they do when she dies?

The other part that I love about this book is my favorite quote:
"If you can sit in silence with a person for half an hour and yet be entirely comfortable, you and that person can be friends.  If you cannot, friends you'll never be and you need not waste time in trying."

To a certain extent, this is a mantra for me and a motto of mine.  I used it a lot when dating--if I couldn't sit in silence with a guy on the first/second date, then we really can't be friends and then what's the point of trying? I only had two guys that fit that bill...one I married and one I'm still friends with to this day.  So maybe it just works.

1 comment:

Paula said...

That is an awesome challenge to see if you can be friends with someone. I wonder how many would fail!