Book Beginnings / Friday 56 - A Lover's Discourse, by Roland Barthes

Hello, everyone! Happy May 😊🌸 What have you been reading this week? Today, it's Friday, so you know what this means! It's time for the two fun weekly memes :)

First, we have Book Beginnings on Fridays, hosted by Rose City Reads. In this meme, we have to share the first sentence (or a bit more) from the book we are currently reading. The second meme is called Friday 56 and it is hosted by Freda's Voice. For this one, we have to share a small snippet from a book, taken from page 56 (or 56% on an e-reader).

This week, I have chosen to show you some snippets from a book I've recently read and reviewed. It's called A Lover's Discourse and it was written by Roland Barthes. In essence, A Lover's Discourse is an essay on the language that a lover uses to describe all the nuances of love. It is an interesting and thought-provoking book, even though it's not the easiest read you'll find. 

Anyway, I hope that these snippets will convince you to give it a try!

Book Beginnings:

"The necessity for this book is to be found in the following consideration: that the lover's discourse is today of an extreme solitude. This discourse is spoken, perhaps, by thousands of subjects (who knows?), but warranted by no one; it is completely forsaken by the surrounding languages: ignored, disparaged, or derided by them, severed not only from authority but also from the mechanisms of authority (sciences, techniques, arts)."

This is actually a small part before even the prologue of the book, but it explains perfectly what this book is about. It consists of small chapters, each one explaining a different feeling/expression.

Friday 56:

(Fulfillment means an abolition of inheritances: "...Joy has no need of heirs or of children - Joy wants itself, wants eternity, the repetition of the same things, wants everything to remain eternally the same." The fulfilled lover has no need to write, to transmit, to reproduce.)

So, page 56 only included the above sentence, so here you have it. The truth is that this book is very quotable and I was sure that no matter the page I would turn, I would find something I had underlined. Indeed, the last part of this paragraph was underlined.

Anyway, this way the book of the week. Have you read A Lover's Discourse? What do you think of these quote?

Share with me some quotes from the books you are currently reading!