Thought of the Day is where you’ll find my little snippets of daily knowledge, historical happenings and newsworthy notes; plus of course the inevitable ‘too good not to add them’ quotes.
I’ve linked them to literary quotes and the books or authors they came from. There’s no rhyme nor reason to them, if it catches my eye then it’s likely to be here, and if you know of an upcoming important happening, or historical even that we should feature on our literary calendar, let us know at;
“Motherfuckers will read a book that’s one third Elvish, but put two sentences in Spanish and they think we’re taking over.”
born December 31, 1968
Junot Díaz is a Dominican American writer, creative writing professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and fiction editor at Boston Review. He also serves on the board of advisers for Freedom University, a volunteer organization in Georgia that provides post-secondary instruction to undocumented immigrants. Central to Díaz’s work is the immigrant experience. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for his novel The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, in 2008. He is a 2012 MacArthur Fellow.
Buy The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao US
Buy The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao UK
“I am a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it”
30 December 1869 – 28 March 1944
Stephen P. H Butler Leacock, FRSC was a Canadian teacher, political scientist, writer, and humourist. Between the years 1910 and 1925, he was the most widely read English-speaking author in the world. He is known for his light humour along with criticisms of people’s follies. The Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour was named in his honour.
Buy Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town US
Buy Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town UK
“Childhood should be carefree, playing in the sun; not living a nightmare in the darkness of the soul.”
born December 29, 1960
David James “Dave” Pelzer (born in San Francisco, California) is an American author, of several autobiographical and self-help books.He is best known for his 1995 memoir of childhood abuse, A Child Called “It”.
“With great power there must also come – great responsibility.”
December 28, 1922
Stan Lee (born Stanley Martin Lieber,) is an American comic book writer, editor, publisher, media producer, television host, actor, and former president and chairman of Marvel Comics. In collaboration with several artists, including Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, he co-created Spider-Man, the Hulk, the Fantastic Four, Iron Man, Thor, the X-Men, and many other fictional characters, introducing complex, naturalistic characters and a thoroughly shared universe into superhero comic books. In addition, he headed the first major successful challenge to the industry’s censorship organization, the Comics Code Authority, and forced it to reform its policies. Lee subsequently led the expansion of Marvel Comics from a small division of a publishing house to a large multimedia corporation.
(Yes we know this has been attributed to earlier writings but it is still a very valid quote and attributable to Lee)
Buy Amazing Fantastic Incredible US
Buy Amazing Fantastic Incredible UK
“Melancholy is to know the beauty of life, and to know it must end.”
born 27 December 1936
Alexander McPhee “Alex” Miller is an Australian novelist. Miller is twice winner of The Miles Franklin Award, in 1993 for The Ancestor Game and in 2003 for Journey to the Stone Country. He won the overall award for the Commonwealth Writer’s Prize for The Ancestor Game in 1993. He is twice winner of the New South Wales Premier’s Literary Awards Christina Stead Prize for Conditions of Faith in 2001 and for Lovesong in 2011. In recognition of his impressive body of work and in particular for his novel Autumn Laing he was awarded the Melbourne Prize for Literature in 2012
“If you’re looking for sympathy you’ll find it between shit and syphilis in the dictionary.”
born December 26, 1956
David Raymond Sedaris is an American humorist, comedian, author, and radio contributor. He was publicly recognized in 1992 when National Public Radio broadcast his essay “SantaLand Diaries”. He published his first collection of essays and short stories, Barrel Fever, in 1994. His next five essay collections, Naked (1997), Holidays on Ice (1997), Me Talk Pretty One Day (2000), Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim (2004), and When You Are Engulfed in Flames (2008), became New York Times Best Sellers. In 2010, he released a collection of stories, Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk: A Modest Bestiary. In 2013, Sedaris released his latest collection of essays, Let’s Explore Diabetes with Owls.
Buy Let’s Explore Diabetes with Owls US
Buy Let’s Explore Diabetes with Owls UK
“The days are cold, the nights are long,
The North wind sings a doleful song;”
25 December 1771 – 25 January 1855
Dorothy Mae Ann Wordsworth was an English author, poet and diarist. She was the sister of the Romantic poet William Wordsworth, and the two were close all their lives. Wordsworth had no ambitions to be an author, and her writings consist only of series of letters, diary entries, poems and short stories.
“Death is Peaceful, Life is Harder”
born December 24, 1973
Stephenie Meyer is an American young-adult fiction writer and film producer, best known for her vampire romance series Twilight.The Twilight novels have gained worldwide recognition and sold over 100 million copies, with translations into 37 different languages. Meyer was the bestselling author of 2008 and 2009 in America, having sold over 29 million books in 2008, and 26.5 million books in 2009. Twilight was the best-selling book of 2008 in US bookstores.
“The ultimate aim of the ego is not to see something, but to be something.”
born 23 December 1952
Muhammed Zafar Iqbal is a Bangladeshi author of science fiction and children’s literature. He is a professor of computer science and engineering and also head of the department of electrical and electronics engineering at Shahjalal University of Science and Technology.
Sorry no UK sales for this author could be found.
(Which is a shame)
“If you’ve been an arsehole today, acknowledge it.
Try not to be one tomorrow.”
born 22 December 1985
Kate Tempest is an English poet, spoken word artist and playwright. In 2013 she won the Ted Hughes Award for her work Brand New Ancients.
“To do something you’re afraid of, especially for the sake of somebody else, is the very definition of courage.”
born 21 December 1979
Michelle Marie Harrison is a British writer whose debut novel, The 13 Treasures, won the Waterstone’s Children’s Book Prize and has been sold for translation in 16 countries. The 13 Treasures is the first part of a trilogy, which has continued with The 13 Curses and The 13 Secrets. Her fourth novel and first book for young adults is Unrest, a ghost story published by Simon & Schuster in 2012.
“I always tell people that I became a writer not because I went to school but because my mother took me to the library. I wanted to become a writer so I could see my name in the card catalog.”
born December 20, 1954
Sandra Cisneros is an American writer best known for her acclaimed first novel The House on Mango Street (1984) and her subsequent short story collection Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories (1991). Her work experiments with literary forms and investigates emerging subject positions, which Cisneros herself attributes to growing up in a context of cultural hybridity and economic inequality that endowed her with unique stories to tell. She is the recipient of numerous awards including a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, and is regarded as a key figure in Chicana literature.
Buy The House on Mango Street US
Buy The House on Mango Street UK
“The purpose of a storyteller is not to tell you how to think, but to give you questions to think upon.”
born December 19, 1975
Brandon Sanderson is an American writer. He is best known for his Mistborn series and his work in finishing Robert Jordan’s epic fantasy series The Wheel of Time. In 2010, Sanderson published The Way of Kings, the first of a ten book series called The Stormlight Archive.
“Confront a child, a puppy, and a kitten with a sudden danger; the child will turn instinctively for assistance, the puppy will grovel in abject submission, the kitten will brace its tiny body for a frantic resistance.”
18 December 1870 – 14 November 1916
Hector Hugh Munro, better known by the pen name Saki, and also frequently as H. H. Munro, was a British writer whose witty, mischievous and sometimes macabre stories satirize Edwardian society and culture. He is considered a master of the short story, and often compared to O. Henry and Dorothy Parker. Influenced by Oscar Wilde, Lewis Carroll and Rudyard Kipling, he himself influenced A. A. Milne, Noël Coward and P. G. Wodehouse
“I try to have reasonably happy endings because I would hate any child to be cast down in gloom and despair; I want to show them you can find a way out of it.”
born 17 December 1945
Dame Jacqueline Wilson, is an English writer of children’s literature. Because her novels commonly deal with themes as adoption, divorce and mental illness, her work has been called controversial because her readers are young. Wilson is the author of many book series. Her Tracy Beaker series, inaugurated in 1991 with The Story of Tracy Beaker, includes three sequels and has been adapted into four CBBC television series: The Story of Tracy Beaker, Tracy Beaker Returns, The Dumping Ground and The Tracy Beaker Files.
Buy The Story of Tracy Beaker US
Buy The Story of Tracy Beaker UK
“Two possibilities exist: either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying.”
16 December 1917 – 19 March 2008
Sir Arthur Charles Clarke, was a British-Sri Lankan science fiction writer, science writer and futurist, inventor, undersea explorer, and television series host.
He is perhaps most famous for being co-writer of the screenplay for the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey, widely considered to be one of the most influential films of all time. His other science fiction writings earned him a number of Hugo and Nebula awards, which along with a large readership made him one of the towering figures of science fiction.
“The world was hers for the reading.”
December 15, 1896 – January 17, 1972
Betty Smith, née Elisabeth Wehner, was an American author and dramatist, she is most famous for her 1943 work, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. Her other works include Tomorrow Will Be Better (1947) and Joy in the Morning (1963).
Buy A Tree Grows in Brooklyn US
Buy A Tree Grows in Brooklyn UK
“The blood of the just will be demanded of London
Burnt by fire in the year ’66
The ancient Lady will fall from her high place
And many of the same sect will be killed.”
14 (or 21) December 1503 – 2 July 1566
Michel de Nostredame, usually Latinised as Nostradamus, was a French apothecary and reputed seer who published collections of prophecies that have since become famous worldwide. He is best known for his book Les Propheties, the first edition of which appeared in 1555. Since the publication of this book, which has rarely been out of print since his death, Nostradamus has attracted a following that, along with much of the popular press, credits him with predicting many major world events. Most academic sources maintain that the associations made between world events and Nostradamus’s quatrains are largely the result of misinterpretations or mistranslations (sometimes deliberate) or else are so tenuous as to render them useless as evidence of any genuine predictive power
“Libraries are places where the damaged go to find friends”
born December 13, 1954
Tamora Pierce is an American writer of fantasy fiction for teenagers, known best for stories featuring young heroines. She made a name for herself with her first book series, The Song of the Lioness (1983–1988), which followed the main character Alanna through the trials and triumphs of training as a knight. Many of her books have feminist themes.
Buy The Song of the Lioness US
Buy The Song of the Lioness UK
“We’re playing Scrabble. It’s a nightmare.”
“Scrabble?” He sounds surprised. “Scrabble’s great.”
“Not when you’re playing with a family of geniuses, it’s not. They all put words like ‘iridiums’. And I put ‘pig’.”
born on 12 December 1969
Madeleine Sophie Wickham is a British author of chick lit. Apart from numerous short stories, she has written several successful stand-alone novels as Madeleine Wickham but is perhaps best known for her work under the pen name Sophie Kinsella. The first two novels in her best-selling Shopaholic series, The Secret Dreamworld of a Shopaholic and Shopaholic Abroad were adapted into the film Confessions of a Shopaholic starring Isla Fisher. Her books have been translated into over 30 languages.
Buy The Secret Dreamworld of a Shopaholic US
Buy The Secret Dreamworld of a Shopaholic UK
“Dream big dreams,because little dreams have no magic.”
born March 13, 1959
Rachel Reneè Russell is an American author of the #1 New York Times Best Selling humorous children’s book series, Dork Diaries.
Dork Diaries chronicles the daily life of the main character, Nikki Maxwell, as she struggles to fit in and survive middle school. The book series is written in a diary format and includes doodles, drawings and comic strips. According to the author’s website, the Dork Diaries books are based on the middle school experiences of her two daughters, Erin and Nikki. Her older daughter, Erin, helps with writing and her younger daughter, Nikki, helps with illustrations. The main character, Nikki Maxwell, is named after her daughter.
“Stories never really end…even if the books like to pretend they do. Stories always go on. They don’t end on the last page, any more than they begin on the first page.”
born on December 10, 1958
Cornelia Maria Funke is a German author of children’s fiction. She was born in Dorsten, North Rhine-Westphalia. Funke is best known for her Inkheart trilogy, published in 2004–2008. Many of her books have now been translated into English. Her work fits mainly into the fantasy and adventure genres. She currently lives in Beverly Hills, California.
“I wished that the chains would break and the wind would sweep me up, up, up into the sky, beyond the clouds, beyond the sun and the moon, to some marvelous kingdom where no one ever changed and friends were friends for life.”
born December 9, 1937
Mary Downing Hahn is an American writer of young adult novels and former school librarian. She is known for many books such as Stepping On The Cracks and Wait Till Helen Comes. She published her first book in 1979 and has since written over twenty novels
“Of all the things I am not very good at, living in the real world is perhaps the most outstanding.”
born December 8, 1951
William McGuire “Bill” Bryson is a best-selling Anglo-American author of humorous books on travel, as well as books on the English language and science. Born in the United States, he was a resident of Britain for most of his adult life before returning to America in 1995. Bryson came to prominence in the United Kingdom with the publication of Notes from a Small Island (1995), an exploration of Britain, and its accompanying television series. He received widespread recognition again with the publication of A Short History of Nearly Everything (2003), a book widely acclaimed for its accessible communication of science.
Buy A Short History of Nearly Everything US
Buy A Short History of Nearly Everything UK
“Nobody hopped into a wardrobe to find Narnia; they hopped in, thinking it was just a wardrobe. They didn’t climb up the Faraway Tree, knowing it was a Faraway Tree; they thought it was just a really big tree. Harry Potter thought he was a normal boy; Mary Poppins was supposed to be a regular nanny. It’s the first and only rule. Magic comes when you’re not looking for it”
born 7 December 1981
Holly Smale is a British writer. Her first published book, Geek Girl, won the 2014 Waterstones Children’s Book Prize and was shortlisted for the Roald Dahl Funny Prize 2013.
“Ah, Hope! what would life be, stripped of thy encouraging smiles, that teach us to look behind the dark clouds of today, for the golden beams that are to gild the morrow.”
6 December 1803 – 8 April 1885
Susanna Moodie was an English-born Canadian author who wrote about her experiences as a settler in Canada, which was a British colony at the time. She wrote her first children’s book in 1822, and published other children’s stories in London, including books about Spartacus and Jugurtha. In London she was also involved in the Anti-Slavery Society, transcribing the narrative of the former Caribbean slave Mary Prince.
Buy Roughing It in the Bush US
Buy Roughing It in the Bush UK
“God bless the Reference Librarians.”
born December 5, 1936
James Lee Burke is an American author of mysteries, best known for his Dave Robicheaux series. He has won an Edgar Award for Black Cherry Blues (1990) and Cimarron Rose (1998), and has also been presented with the Grand Master Award from the Mystery Writers of America. Burke has also written seven miscellaneous crime novels, two short story collections, four books starring protagonist Texas attorney Billy Bob Holland, and three books starring Billy Bob’s cousin Texas sheriff Hackberry Holland.
“Love is the way that life forgets that it is terminal. Love is life’s alibi in the face of death.”
born 4 December 1957
Peter Godwin is an author, journalist, screenwriter, documentary filmmaker, and former human rights lawyer. Best known for his writings concerning the breakdown of his native Zimbabwe, he has reported from more than 60 countries and written several books. He is currently President of PEN American Center and resides in Manhattan, New York with his wife.
Buy When a Crocodile Eats the Sun US
Buy When a Crocodile Eats the Sun UK
“The mind of man is capable of anything.”
3 December 1857 – 3 August 1924
Joseph Conrad was a Polish-British writer regarded as one of the greatest novelists to write in the English language.He was granted British nationality in 1886 but always considered himself a Pole. Though he did not speak English fluently until he was in his twenties (and always with a marked accent), he was a master prose stylist who brought a distinctly non-English sensibility into English literature. He wrote stories and novels, many with a nautical setting, that depict trials of the human spirit in the midst of an impassive, inscrutable universe.
“Writing is a habit, an addiction, as powerful and overmastering an urge as putting a bottle to your lips or a spike in your arm. Call it the impulse to make something out of nothing, call it an obsessive-compulsive disorder, call it logorrhea. Have you been in a bookstore lately? Have you seen what these authors are doing, the mountainous piles of the flakes of themselves they’re leaving behind, like the neatly labeled jars of shit, piss, and toenail clippings one of John Barth’s characters bequeathed to his wife, the ultimate expression of his deepest self?”
born December 2, 1948
Tom Coraghessan Boyle ( also known as T.C. Boyle) A prolific American novelist and short story writer, he is best known for his PEN/Faulkner Award-winning novel, World’s End. Much of his writing explores the experiences and characteristics of members of the baby boom generation.
“A children’s book is the perfect place where young readers can understand the world because they can take a deep breath and look at it and imagine and contemplate while they’re looking at.”
born December 1, 1949
Jan Brett is an American illustrator and writer of children’s picture books. She is known for colorful, detailed depictions of a wide variety of animals and human cultures ranging from Scandinavia to Africa. Her best-known titles include The Mitten, The Hat, and Gingerbread Baby. She has adapted or retold numerous traditional stories such as the Gingerbread Man and Goldilocks and has illustrated some classics such as “The Owl and the Pussycat”.
Buy The Wild Christmas Reindeer US
Buy The Wild Christmas Reindeer UK
