Joey Chan

My tumblr dashboard is filled with literature, books, and more literature. For those of you who are unfamiliar with tumblr, or find that the blogs tumblr recommends you to follow are absolutely irrelevant, here is the perfect list for the literary junkie in you.

This list is not exhaustive, but these blogs will be good to begin with. 

1. A Sea of Quotes

 It was the kind of day in which you forget words and drop things and wonder what it is you came into the room to get because you are standing here for a reason and you have to tell yourself it is just a question of sooner or later before you remember because you always remember once you are here. 

The Body Artist, Don De Lillo

When there is a sea of quotes, you just have to cruise through it. Quotes from the classics to the contemporary, quotes relating from happiness to sadness to hope, quotes in varying lengths, this place has them covered. Everything is in a different font too so it keeps me excited. No, seriously. When everything looks pretty much the same, it gets a tad boring.

If I could have an all-time favourite, it’d be A Sea ofQuotes. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t check out the rest of the blogs.

2. White Paper Quotes

Even though quotes featured on White Paper Quotes aren’t all literary quotes, they’re painstakingly handwritten, alphabet-by-alphabet! This genuine touch is a bonus. You can even submit your favourite quotes to be handwritten, too. 

3. Peels of Poetry

The day has pockets - you can always find time to read. 

Susan Sontag

A quaint collection of poetry updated sporadically, Peels ofPoetry is one of my most recent follows. There is nothing fancy about Peels of Poetry, besides the fact that it is not. I love it simple like this, the occasional spoken word poetry amidst quotes and poems. You must follow Peels of Poetry if you like blogs that gives itself a theme and stay true to it.

4. The Booker

The Booker is for you to follow if you’re constantly looking for something new to read. The writer of the blog does reviews, recommendations and has even compiled (and is still compiling) a list of underrated books under her UnderratedBook Project.

5. The Final Sentence

Her life was beastly and devoid of pity,

And being dead, let birds on her take pity. 

Titus Andronicus, William Shakespeare

The title should say it all: The final sentences of every possible literary work ever written. It is quirky and pretty fun to scroll through. 

This is all I have for you right now. I am on the constant move to look for blogs that have a commitment to literature or any form of art really. If you have any blogs you would like to recommend, simply let us know about it at our very own tumblr. 

Gracia Ting

Don’t have the time or attention span for full novels at the moment? Here are seven Twitter accounts you should follow for lit / alt-lit quotes and musings that might help you find yourself (sorry, don’t mean to sound pretentious and dramatic, but @itsSylviaPlath is the place where I have re-evaluated my life and felt like a hand had reached out through my phone and held mine…). Not your kind of thing? (Really?) Regardless, follow these accounts anyway; you might find words you wish you had written.

1.     Joyce Carol Oates (@JoyceCarolOates)

Author of over forty novels and a Pulitzer Prize nominee, tweeting topics ranging from education and gender issues, to writing, and to cats.

A few gems:

My ideal college would not admit “well-rounded” students at all. Expecting excellence in many areas is unrealistic & encourages subterfuge. 

Envy our cats lying by windows in winter observing birds at feeder, deep-throated growls, swishing tails, & no harm to anyone. 

First rule of journalism—“Interesting, if true.”

Fiction / poetry have no perimeters. 

Strange how the instinct to censor does not start with oneself. Only others. 

2.     Sylvia Plath (@itssylviaplath)

This one needs no introduction. For the introspective souls (or any breathing soul, really), this account is a temporary retreat into words that were written to sink beneath skin.

A few gems:

I shall be a heroine of the peripheral. 

Let me not be weak and tell others how bleeding I am internally; how day by day it drips, and gathers, and congeals. 

I am already in another world – or between two worlds, one dead, the other dying to be born. 

I am learning how to compromise the wild dream ideals and the necessary realities without such screaming pain. 

3.     Winterson Words (@wintersonwords)

Author of books such as Written On The Body and Gut Symmetries, Jeanette Winterson writes about love and identity (amongst other topics) so fluidly and intensely that every word feels like a fiery and consuming blow to your gut. This account is a collection of her words, and its description is apt: “things you wish you had written / words to inspire you”.

A few gems:

Beige and magnolia and a hint of pink are what the well-decorated heart is wearing; who wants my blood red and vein-blue? 

What should I do about the wild and tame? The wild heart that wants to be free, and the tame heart that wants to come home. 

The probability of separate worlds meeting is very small. The lure of it is immense. We send starships. We fall in love.

Kiss me with the hollow of your mouth, the excavation where the words are dug, the words sanded under time. 

4.     Warsan Shire (@warsan_shire)

Poet and author of the brilliant Teaching My Mother How To Give Birth, Warsan Shire tweets many of her own poignant gems, as well as her favourite quotes.

A few gems:

‘some people underestimate how erotic it is to be understood.’ – mary rakow 

even your emptiness is plagiarised 

you raise all my insecurities to the surface of my skin. under the right light i look like i’m adorned with flowers 

It’s not my responsibility to be beautiful, I’m not alive for that purpose. My existence is not about how desirable you find me. 

5.     Murakami Fan (@haruki_tweets)

Follow this account if you have no time for the million-paged 1Q84, but would like to soak up Murakami’s genius 140 characters at a time.

A few gems:

If I stayed here, something inside me would be lost forever – something I couldn’t afford to lose. 

Chance encounters keep us going. 

I can bear any pain as long as it has meaning. 

It’s only after I become completely empty that I am capable of creating something. 

6.    NietzscheQuotes (@NietzscheQuotes)

This German philosopher needs no introduction either. Follow this account to find timeless Nietzsche quotes other than the oft-quoted “And those who were seen dancing…” I didn’t even have to finish writing that did I?

A few gems:

Of all that is written, I love only what a man has written with his own blood. 

Insanity in individuals is rare – but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. 

Art is the proper task of life. 

I cut myself dreaming. 

7.     Andrew Goldspink (@AndrewGoldspink)

His Twitter bio: “Writer and Musician”. So there you go. This twitter account is not filled with “literary quotes” per se, but his thoughts and musings.

A few gems:

To look for someone who is as intense as you is the most human thing. 

Life is a series of nightmares tangentially related to each other 

I don’t think there’s such a thing as a synonym 

When I talk I see the words, some are more grey and less black because they are undecided 

Any other similar (or dissimilar) Twitter accounts you think should be followed? Tweet us @wallflowersmag.