Third book: Parnassus on Wheels by Christopher Morley.
A trifle of a book, but one that bibliomaniacs should read. It is a story about books, their place in the world, and love found at an "advanced" age. (Note: the narrator is 39, the love interest is 40--they say they are old. Since I'm 48, and that for only a few more short days, I don't think that seems very old.)
I could have underlined something on virtually every page!
Here's an excerpt:
What absurd victims of contrary desires we are! If a man is settled in one place he yearns to wander; when he wanders he yearns to have a home. And yet how bestial is content--all the great things in life are done by discontented people.
There are three ingredients in the good life: learning, earning, and yearning. A man should be learning as he goes; and he should be earning bread for himself and others; and he should be yearning, too: yearning to know the unknowable.
It's so good to hear someone else has read that book. Yes, Helen thinks she's old, but she's really just having a midlife crisis -- only they hadn't been invented yet.
Though "the revolt of woman" had. Remember that line on the cover of Andrew's magazine?