After my first semester of college, I can say with absolute certainty that it’s harder to read at the same pace I did when I was in high school. I used to read at least 10 books a month, whereas now I sit at about three.
As I find myself becoming busier, I’m becoming more selective in the books I want to read when I do have the time. One book that felt more than worth the time to read was Someone Who Will Love You In All Your Damaged Glory by Raphael Bob-Waksberg, the creator of BoJack Horseman.
Someone Who Will Love You In All Your Damaged Glory is a collection of 18 short stories about love, the struggle of connection, and the vulnerability of being human told through bizarre humor and alternate realities.
Frankly, I was skeptical about starting it; I was unsure if it would be my type of book due to its formatting. If you’re on the fence about picking this up, here are 10 quotes (in no particular order) that sold this book as a necessary read for me at this point in my life.
1. “You’re no dummy, and yet repeatedly, you stumble over the cracks of your cobblestone heart, you let your naked foolish hopes get the better of you.”
The moment I opened the first story and read these words, I knew this book was for me. This narrative describing the fragility of trust was already calling me out. I’m constantly looking past reality to indulge myself in my hope (or what my friends might call delusions), and in turn, I find myself less trusting each time something doesn’t work out for me. This story emphasizes that things will be wonderful the next time you trust someone, and I like that perspective.
2. “I fell in love with you a little bit, in that stupid way where you completely make up a fictional version of the person you’re looking at and fall in love with that person.”
I’m really good at creating the version of who I want someone to be in my head rather than forcing myself to see that that’s all it is: the version I made up in my head. Hence, I felt a bit called out by this statement.
3. “The emptiness was normal. The harsh incinerating boring awful raw barren obsessive numb five-hundred-volt nothingness now completely consuming her was so totally average.”
Do I need to explain the way that this reached into my gut, pulled out my small intestine, tied it into knots, and then shoved it back into my body?
4. “You had every intention of being depressed forever, but as it turns out, there’s work to be done, meals to eat, movies to see, errands to run. You meant to be in ruins permanently, your misery a monument, a gash across the cold hard earth, but honestly, who has the time for that?”
Sometimes, there are moments where I think healing is not worth it because I’m comfortable with how depressed and numb I feel. Then I remember that it truly is exhausting to be constantly miserable. Like this quote says, “Who has the time for that?” Certainly not me, especially when I’m determined to make college some of the best years of my life.
5. “In the great grand scheme of things, this is nothing, this wound–it’s a nick of a razor, a scrape of the knee– and if you say it enough times and with enough vehemence and smile wider each time you say it, you can even convince yourselves.”
All I know is I relate to this quote, my friends relate to this quote, and I’m sure others will relate to it too. “The great grand scheme of things” is a good way for me to look at my small misfortunes and realize they will pass.
6. “Do you welcome back love with open arms, or do you, under the auspices of rational thinking, break this person’s heart, like this person broke yours?”
I just like the way this made me examine my own perspective — something to contemplate.
7. “If your word is EYES, you CANNOT say FACE, NOSE, GLASSES, SEE, or SOUL, but you CAN say, ‘Last night I looked into your these and I hit a wall. I could make out nothing past the iris, and I realized that the deep unquenchable yearning I long thought I had recognized was actually my own.”
Yearning competition: me versus literally everyone in the whole world.
8. “And then, all of the sudden, I’ll be struck by the paralyzing truth: It’s not what we do that makes us who we are. It’s what we don’t do that defines us.”
A very profound way of looking at what your actions are or lack and, therefore, mean in the long run.
9 “That life is terrifying and overwhelming and it can happen at any moment. And when you’re confronted with life you can either be cowardly or you can be brave, but either way you’re going to live. So you might as well be brave.”
You might as well be brave! This quote abruptly shifted my perspective on my choices in life, and I feel like since reading this, I’ve made it a priority to make my bravery prevalent in all that I do.
10. “Waj’m Maj’vht is a perfect genetic combination of the first ten presidents, Mr. Gupta announces proudly. WAJ’M MAJ’VHT! The lady repeats. Washington! Adams! Jefferson!… The rest! And Mr. Gupta continues: Not just guys in costumes, I’m saying– this guy is the actual presidents Oh no he is vomiting. Sure enough this thing is now puking all over the floor–like for real just fire-hosing chunks all over the place. And part of me wants to cut through the awkwardness by asking the monster what it thinks of the new Drake album, but I know I probably shouldn’t in front of the white lady.”
Honestly, this story was the funniest thing I’ve ever read. It felt like a reward after so many callouts throughout these stories. I still laugh to myself every time I read it.
Bob-Waksberg does a great job of finding the sentiment within silly stories. Yes, there are so many gimmicks, but every story is still connected to the theme of love because love is in everything and everyone.
It was refreshing to read a book that had so much variety in the stories that were told while continuously examining the nature of the human condition. It was exactly the type of book I needed as I evaluate the person I am and the person I aim to become throughout the next few years. I hope other people who end up reading this book love it just as much as I did!
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