Discussing literature at our house

Actual conversation, verbatim, regarding The Echo Maker by Richard Powers:

Patrick: "You might like this book, actually."

Me: "I might like this book, the same one that's been boring you to tears?"

Patrick: "Yes, but he's got a bunch of stuff in there about brain damage and mental health that would probably be interesting to you. I'm not into that kind of thing; I'm looking for a story."

Me: "You're not into mental health?"

Patrick: "It's overrated."

Dubliners

"She respected her husband in the same way as she respected the General Post Office, as something large, secure and fixed; and though she knew the small number of his talents she appreciated his abstract value as a male."

(James Joyce, "A Mother," in Dubliners)

The Swing of Things

"What were people looking for? They all knew that this was the eye of the needle, that nothing lasted, the silence will win. The animal drive to survive and the human reason knowing it is futile - was that it? People knew it was pointless and dwelling on it changed nothing...The great stale void sucked everything into it whether you were aware of it or not. You could laugh or put a gun in your mouth. Or in somebody else's mouth. Or you could go to work, marry the woman, bring up the kids and keep it out of your mind."

(Sean O'Reilly, The Swing of Things)