♥ all the secrets of the world are contained in books. read at your own risk.

image via we heart it.

ever since i was little, i have tried as best i could to make family, friends and nick like the same things i liked. in particular: clothes, books and writing. i would make my poor sister, lissy, (a tomboy growing up) play library and write cat stories for as long as her attention span would allow, and would have my cousins, jaimee and kristal invite me over to their houses for a sleepover just so i could dismantle their closets and neatly put them back together.

now that i am older, i am (finally!) realizing that not everyone has the same interests as i do (unfortunately), and that is why i started this blog, so i can find other people who do! i have therefore decided that every once and a while i am going to post an excerpt from a book that i totally stand behind and highly recommend. i will offer you a small "glimpse," and hope that you are intrigued enough to read more.

from: on beauty by zadie smith.

"people talk about the happy quiet that can exist between two lovers, but this too was great; sitting between his sister and his brother, saying nothing, eating. before the world existed, before it was populated, and before there were wars and jobs and colleges and movies and clothes and opinions and foreign travel– before all of these things there had been only one person: zora, and only one place: a tent in the living room made from chairs and bed–sheets. after a few years, levi arrived; space was made for him; it was as if he has always been. looking at them both now, jerome found himself in their finger joints and neat conch ears, in their long legs and wild curls. he heard himself in their partial lisps caused by puffy tongues vibrating against slightly noticeable buckteeth. he did not consider if or how or why he loved them. they were just love: they were the first evidence he ever had of love, and they would be the last confirmation of love when everything else fell away." (p.235)

um, isn't that excerpt nothing short of amazing???? i want to make out with it. or cry on its shoulder. or both.

on a completely superficial level, i must also say that zadie smith has fabulous personal style, which i feel compelled to share with you as well! isn't she beautiful? she is english & jamaican.

i just love her unexpected color choices, her signature head wraps, and her fun accessories.

image via guest of a guest.

images via essence.

image via the passage project.

for those of you who still buy real physical magazines and books: first of all– good for you, and second of all– you will be happy to note that starting march 2011, zadie smith will be the first woman to write the "new books" column for harper's magazine. (source.)

happy reading :)