The quote book

I collect a lot of things, from books and pens to DVDs, CDs, and magnets, to name but a few. What a lot of people don't know is that I also collect quotes. 

What do I do with all these quotes? I put them in a book, one for each year I've been collecting them. The ones with the red spines are record books printed by Wilson Jones. The pile here runs from 1996 to 2007, with the exception of 1997. I can't find that one anywhere. There are also three more books before these, from years 1993-1995, that are similar in looks though smaller and yellow in color, which are also MIA at the moment. 

I would buy a new book, usually during the month of December, and start getting ready for the new year. Each one has their own title. I would go through the current year and pick one or two (or three or four or more) favorites and toss them around. One of them would become the title for the next year's book. 

At the beginning, I had a special pen I would use to write with. Over the years I've used whatever has been handy, not caring whether it was a pencil or pen, the ink red or blue or black.

2008 will mark the 16th book I've placed on the shelf. 

So what kind of quotes do I collect? Some are famous, like "The New Colossus" by Emma Lazarus, found at the Statue of Liberty, or funny (to me, anyway), like "...and the voice of James Earl Jones." Don't ask - too goofy to tell now, years later. Some are song lyrics (usually pasted into the book instead of written down) while others are phrases from books, movies and TV shows I've watched over the years. 

The older ones I no longer remember what I had been reading or watching at the time I came across the quote. Newer ones, such as those from this year's book (the open one on the Macbook, a Moleskine Cahier notebook) I can tell you exactly what I was watching or reading or which song I was listening to. 

By the titles I can sometimes tell what I was writing or researching about. 1998's title of "Far seen and far seeing" refers to Whitby Abbey on the coast of Northern England. You can kind of get a sense from the photograph if you click on the name. For more information about the abbey, check out the Wikipedia article found here.

Here are the titles, for what they're worth. Those without a title are MIA.

1993

1994

1995

1996 The glimpse through those far off windows

1997

1998 Far seen and far seeing

1999 Imagine what you will know tomorrow

2000 The past is the past. Your future awaits.

2001 A woman's destiny, they say, is not fulfilled until she holds in her arms her own little book

2002 Believe and be ready

2003 Discover what it is you're good at

2004 Go beyond your comfort zone

2005 This is your time. Now go out there and take it

2006 ...for if I do not succeed today...tomorrow

2007 Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself

2008 ...how much you'd give up if the chance came along

2009 ?