Visiting old friends

I've been casting around for a novel that engages my full attention, and I haven't found one lately. The last one that I loved was "Beware of God", a series of short stories that I highly recommend. The other is (as I've mentioned) Italo Calvino's "Invisible Cities". I've been savoring that one. Only reading a few pages and then putting it aside. I need to pick up my own copy (mine is on loan from a friend), because like a favorite tome of poetry, I know it is something I will revisit again and again.

On that note I was revisiting some other "old friends" that I've read and loved. The first was a series of short stories by Zelazney The Last Defender of Camelot, the other is a rather obscure choice, "Songs of Chaos".

It's funny how a single line or two will remain in my memory for years until I stumble on it again:


From Camelot:

"Do you believe I could be satisfied with any of these things?"

"Men find satisfaction in many things. It depends on the man, not the things."

From Songs:

Because we are so very beautiful...we are so beautiful and live so little against the greatness of time, and yet we can celebrate ourselves. And that is what makes us Malandros, what makes us so different...They pretend that they are important, that what they do matters. While we know that the only thing that matters is our beauty and passion, the song of a single cycle, and then it is gone, and it is all gone with us.

(beauty above is not referring to some simplified form normality, but profound beauty, Form vs. Function kind of concept)

I've also dipped into "The Red Tent", but only the first pages, what I found has left me hopeful that I will like the rest.