I don’t actually save quotations from books very often, so for this we’re reaching for some snippets I remember (or at least half remember, enough to look them up) to see what’s made an impression on me… let’s see what I can rustle up. Some of these I’ve surely posted before (and am posting again because they remain as vital to me as ever), but some are definitely newer.

1. From John Green’s Everything is Tuberculosis, because TB remains a terrible and destructive disease that we must all take responsibility for:  
   We cannot address TB only with vaccines and medications. We cannot address it only with comprehensive STP programs. We must also address the root cause of tuberculosis, which is injustice. In a world where everyone can eat, and access healthcare, and be treated humanely, tuberculosis has no chance. Ultimately, we are the cause.
   We must also be the cure.
2. From Katherine Addison’s The Goblin Emperor, because Maia’s efforts to be better than what was done to him (without it being easy) make him a wonderful character:
   “In our inmost and secret heart, which you ask us to bare to you, we wish to banish them as we were banished, to a cold and lonely house, in the charge of a man who hated us. And we wish them trapped there as we were trapped.”
   “You consider that unjust, Serenity?”
   “We consider it cruel,” Maia said. “And we do not think that cruelty is ever just.”
3. From Mo Xiang Tong Xiu’s Heaven Official’s Blessing, because Xie Lian’s strong determination to save whoever he can is something I aspire to:
   “If a day isn’t enough, let it take a month. If a month won’t do, then two months, three months! If I can’t save ten thousand, then I’ll save a thousand. If I can’t save a thousand, then I’ll save a hundred, or ten, or even just one!”
4. From Mo Xiang Tong Xiu’s Heaven Official’s Blessing, because it struck a chord for me in emphasising choice:
   “I might not be able to decide whether the road is easy or not, but whether I walk it is entirely up to me.”
5. From Mo Xiang Tong Xiu’s Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation, because this scene is actually really important, and we really do have to know when to say sorry:
   Wei Wuxian strode over with his hands clasped behind his back. “Young man, sometimes in life, there are a few sappy things one must say.”
   “What?” Jin Ling asked.
   “‘Thank you’ and ‘I’m sorry’,” Wei Wuxian replied.
   Jin Ling clicked his tongue. “Well, I refuse. What’re you gonna do about it?”
   “There’ll come a day when you’ll say them through tears,” Wei Wuxian said.
   Jin Ling scoffed, and Wei Wuxian suddenly said it himself.
   “I’m sorry.”
6. From Susan Cooper’s Silver on the Tree, because it’s easy to wait for someone else to save us:
   “For Drake is no longer in his hammock, children, nor is Arthur somewhere sleeping, and you may not lie idly expecting the second coming of anybody now, because the world is yours and it is up to you. Now especially since man has the strength to destroy the world, it is the responsibility of man to keep it alive, in all its beauty and marvelous joy.
   And the world will still be imperfect, because men are imperfect. Good men will still be killed by bad, or sometimes by other good men, and there will still be pain and disease and famine, anger and hate. But if you work and care and are watchful, as we have tried to be for you, then in the long run the worse will never, ever, triumph over the better.”
7. From Ursula Le Guin’s A Wizard of Earthsea, because this is the turning-point of the story, and in a way taught me to be less anxious by facing my fears:
   “You must hunt the hunter.”
8. From Ursula Le Guin’s A Wizard of Earthsea, because it’s true but hard to learn:
   “Only in silence the word, only in dark the light, only in dying life: bright the hawk’s flight on the empty sky.”
9. From Dorothy L. Sayers’ The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club, so that not all of these are serious (and because this, too, is true!):
   “Books are like lobster shells, we surround ourselves with ’em, then we grow out of ’em and leave ’em behind, as evidence of our earlier stages of development.”
10. From Dodie Smith’s I Capture the Castle, because it’s a good one to end on, and a line I will never forget:
    Only the margin left to write on now. I love you, I love you, I love you.

With apologies to those who could’ve predicted the inclusion of those quotes from Cooper, Le Guin, Addison, Smith and Sayers…

This week’s theme for Top Ten Tuesday is books for armchair travellers, and my take on that is probably idiosyncratic… but here we go.

1. Monsterland: A Journey Around the World’s Dark Imagination, by Nicholas Jubber. I actually just finished reading this last night, so it jumped to mind. Each chapter starts with a short retelling of a monster story, and then Jubber explores various landscapes that have housed the monsters, participating in local festivities, peeping at the dark places in our imagination. Sometimes it feels a liiiittle bit… white tourist gawking at the locals, but it’s still interesting. This is probably the book on my list that best fits the theme, and I didn’t personally love it, but I can see why other people would.
2. The Gabriel Hounds, by Mary Stewart. I would’ve picked my favourite Stewart, Madam, Will You Talk? — and it’s definitely hard to choose with Stewart’s work, because she’s great at evoking a sense of place — but I think the landscape and setting of The Gabriel Hounds stuck with me most of all, perhaps because it was one of the first of her books I read. The heat, the dusty roads, the dilapidated rooms of the palace of Dar Ibrahim, it all feels very real.
3. The Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien. Partly prompted by yesterday’s discussion post, of course, but I think I might’ve come up with this one anyway! It’s such a journey, with terrible and wonderful sights. You can even undertake it yourself by doing a Walk to Mordor challenge, if you get tired of the armchair.
4. The Invisible Library, by Genevieve Cogman. The whole series, really — want to travel through various fictional worlds, on quests for rare and unique books? An alternate fae-touched Venice, in book two? Irene travels through various different worlds, and I for one loved traveling with her.
5. Five Red Herrings, by Dorothy L. Sayers. Fancy some trekking around Scotland? It’s possible, or at least was, to retrace some of the journeys taken by the characters in this classic mystery, and follow the story through the landscape. I can’t imagine the train times are the same anymore, but still…
6. A Gentle Noble’s Vacation Recommendation, by Misaki, Momochi & Sando. This manga series features a man from a fantasy world ending up somehow transported to another, different fantasy world — and deciding to make the most of it and have a bit of a holiday. Admittedly the main attraction of the story is his relationship with the friends he makes there, but we also get to see a bit of the world, learn a bit about magic, and see some cool monsters.
7. The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet, by Becky Chambers. Space travel more your thing? This first book of the series hops around a bit, visiting a few different planets, though the setting is generally a bit more restricted in later books.
8. The Eagle of the Ninth, by Rosemary Sutcliff. How about a trip to the past? A bit of Roman Britain, a trek through Scotland of the same period, and you can practically feel the chilly mist in places.
9. Eating to Extinction: The World’s Rarest Foods and Why We Need Them, by Dan Saladino. I’m not actually a foodie myself, but I’m interested in food science and food history, so this was a much-enjoyed read of 2025. By necessity, the story of rare foods and local delicacies at risk of disappearing takes the author’s narrative all over the world.
10. A Natural History of Dragons, by Marie Brennan. The whole series is a trek around a slightly-askew version of our world, with many locations and customs clearly based on/inspired by real-world locations, but also with scope for Brennan to imagine alternate histories, alternate mythologies, and, you know, the inclusion of dragons. The first book barely dips a toe in, but the whole series features perilous voyages, desert survival, tropical jungles, dangerous mountains, etc, etc. (And I will say that the author, if not always the narrator, stays aware of the issues of white people “exploring” and “discovering”.)

I’m not sure how other people are interpreting the theme, but I think maybe I cheated a little bit by offering travel to the past and to fictional planets… but hey, that’s where I like to “travel” in my books, so there!