Uncommon Type
by Tom Hanks
(London: Arrow, 2017)
Mr. Moore, a retired cop whose house shares my back fence saw me running by and hollered out, “What the fuck got into you?”
“A woman!” I yelled back, and not only was that true, but I felt good saying it. When a man thinks of a lady and looks forward to telling her that he ran forty minutes, well, partner, he’s living in Girlfriend Territory.
Page 12.
Being Anna’s boyfriend was like training to be a Navy SEAL, while working full-time in an Amazon fulfillment center in the Oklahoma panhandle in tornado season.
Page 18.
To make our plane Anna and I had to run though the DFW airport like to characters from a movie that was about either wacky lovers on vacation or federal agents trying to stop a terrorist attack.
Pages 28-29.
A good rule of thumb when traveling in Europe - stay in places with a Nazi past.
Page 62.
We’ve been on computers since the eighties , though the first generation of them sere called word processors - that was what we called ourselves.
Page 86.
I think NYC comes off way better on TV and in the movies, when a taxi is just a whistle away and superheroes save the day. In the real world (ours) every day in Gotham is a little like the Macy’s thanksgiving Day Parade and a lot like Baggage Claim after a long, crowded flight.
Page 157.
Anything New York has that we lack in our own Tri-Cities? Not so much, since TV give us all the sports and media in the world and the Internet provides all else.
Page 160.
In New York city real estate parlors took your money and lied to you, drug addicts relieved themselves in plain sight, and the Public Library was closed on Mondays.
Page 170.
She was fairly certain that sauntering through a parking lot full of cared tables brimming with yard sale debris was not an act of worship.
Page 226.
She pondered the greater conundrum, one that faces all who buy a typewriter in the third millennium: what is its purpose?
Page 228.
She felt bad, as though she had disappointed one of her teachers with a lazy effort, handling in a poorly structure essay.
Page 231.
“Typewriters must be used. Like a boat must sail. An airplane has to fly. What good is a piano you never play? It gathers dust and there is no music in your life.”
Page 238.
Innocence breeds adventure.
Page 243.
The newsroom that doesn’t run on coffee puts out a lousy paper.
Page 379.