...there are books...which you can't tell people about, books so special and rare and yours that advertising your affection feels like a betrayal.

What can we do? Mom asked again.I shrugged.But she kept asking, as if there were something she could do, until I just kind of crawled across the couch into her lap and my dad came over and held my legs really tight and I wrapped my arms all the way around my mom's middle and they held on to me for hours while the tide rolled in.

What? I asked.Nothing, he said.Why are you looking at me like that?Augustus half smiled. Because you're beautiful. I enjoy looking at beautiful people, and I decided a while ago not to deny myself the simpler pleasures of existence.

I enjoy looking at beautiful people, and I decided a while ago not to deny myself the simpler pleasures of existence.

I missed the future. Obviously I knew even before his recurrence that I'd never grow old with Augustus Waters. But thinking about Lidewij and her boyfriend, I felt robbed. I would probably never again see the ocean from thirty thousand feet above, so far up that you can't make out the waves or any boats, so that the ocean is a great and endless monolith. I could imagine it. I could remember it. But I couldn't see it again, and it occurred to me that the voracious ambition of humans is never sated by dreams coming true, because there is always the thought that everything might be done better and again.

Sure, anyone can name fourteen dead people. But we're disorganized mourners, so a lot of people end up remembering Shakespeare, and no one ends up remembering the person he wrote Sonnet Fifty-five about.

You are amazing, she said. And you make a very handsome elephant.

Um... Hazel faltered. You mean you won't... you're not going to- Claim your life? Thantos asked. Well, let's see... He pulled a pure-black iPad from thin air. Death, tapped the screen a few times, and all Frank could think was: Please don't let there be an app for reaping souls. I don't see you on the list, Thantos said. Pluto gives me specific orders for escaped souls, you see. For some reason, he has not issued a warrant for yours. Perhaps he feels your life is not finished, or it could be n oversight. If you'd like me to call and ask- No! Hazel yelped. That's okay. Are you sure? Death asked helpfully. I have video-conferencing enabled. I have his Skype address here somewhere...