,
Simon J. Evnine

year in books

Simon J. Evnine’s Followers (159)

member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
James K...
892 books | 144 friends

Kinga
14,362 books | 674 friends

Sophy H
2,445 books | 255 friends

Trevor
1,844 books | 4,397 friends

Mir
Mir
14,171 books | 448 friends

Manny
4,280 books | 4,950 friends

Fionnuala
899 books | 864 friends

Marguer...
1,024 books | 480 friends

More friends…

Simon J. Evnine

Goodreads Author


Born
in The United Kingdom
Website

Member Since
July 2007


“Really, really good. It might even be a masterpiece:” _A Certain Gesture_’s first review!

I am pleased to announce that A Certain Gesture: Evnine’s Batman Meme Project and Its Parerga! has just received its first review, published in a respectable philosophy periodical, Philosophy in Review. The review is by Nick Wiltsher of Uppsala University.

The title of this post quotes the reviewer’s response to the book but, as wonderful for me as it is to read that, I am even more pleased by his

Read more of this blog post »
3 likes ·   •  0 comments  •  flag
Share on Twitter
Published on March 03, 2024 00:48
Average rating: 3.79 · 38 ratings · 19 reviews · 5 distinct works
Donald Davidson

4.08 avg rating — 12 ratings5 editions
Rate this book
Clear rating
Epistemic Dimensions of Per...

3.78 avg rating — 9 ratings — published 2008 — 4 editions
Rate this book
Clear rating
Making Objects and Events: ...

3.67 avg rating — 9 ratings5 editions
Rate this book
Clear rating
A Certain Gesture: Evnine's...

3.80 avg rating — 5 ratings3 editions
Rate this book
Clear rating
The Anonymity of a Murmur: ...

liked it 3.00 avg rating — 3 ratings — published 2018
Rate this book
Clear rating
More books by Simon J. Evnine…
Colony
Simon is currently reading
bookshelves: currently-reading
Rate this book
Clear rating

 
Radium of the Wor...
Rate this book
Clear rating

 
Kaputt
Simon is currently reading
bookshelves: currently-reading
Rate this book
Clear rating

 

Simon’s Recent Updates

Simon and 146 other people liked Paul Bryant's review of 2025 on Goodreads:
2025 on Goodreads by Various
"This was the last year of history before AI reconstructed human life completely. Already I have to check the comments section of every cute cat video to see if someone has figured that it’s AI. It’s making me delulu with no solulu. Well it’s nothing " Read more of this review »
Simon and 2 other people liked Erika's review of On Chesil Beach:
On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan
"Flawlessly executed, of course. Not a misplaced word in the book. Also thoughtful, insightful, true, and profoundly sad. Not in a heart-breaking way but in a "yes, that is how it happens" way. Sometimes seeing how and why people do the wrong thing is" Read more of this review »
Simon is now following Erika's reviews
1730398
2025 on Goodreads by Various
"I had a pretty good reading year amidst what was pretty much a disastrous year in the world at large (politically, environmentally, socially, economically – you get the picture). I was consuming far too much political (U.S.) content, raging (as a Can" Read more of this review »
Simon wants to read
Moderation by Elaine Castillo
Rate this book
Clear rating
Simon and 123 other people liked Fionnuala's review of 2025 on Goodreads:
2025 on Goodreads by Various
"After eleven years posting these reviews of the year, you'd think I'd have composed a formula I could trot out every December, simply replacing the previous year's book titles with the current ones.
But no, the previous formats are none of them repro" Read more of this review »
Simon started reading
Colony by Hugo Wilcken
Rate this book
Clear rating
Simon marked as read-enough-of
After Sappho by Selby Wynn Schwartz
Rate this book
Clear rating
Simon started reading
After Sappho by Selby Wynn Schwartz
Rate this book
Clear rating
Simon rated a book it was amazing
The Puttermesser Papers by Cynthia Ozick
Rate this book
Clear rating
More of Simon's books…
Ruth Ozeki
“Coming at us like this--in waves, massed and unbreachable--knowledge becomes symbolic of our disempowerment--becomes bad knowledge--so we deny it, riding its crest until it subsides from consciousness... "Ignorance." In this root sense, ignorance is an act of will, a choice that one makes over and over again, especially when information overwhelms and knowledge has become synonymous with impotence... If we can't act on knowledge, then we can't survive without ignorance... Ignorance becomes empowering because it enables people to live. Stupidity becomes proactive, a political statement.”
Ruth Ozeki, My Year of Meats

Michael N. Forster
“To put the point facetiously, one could say that Hegel began his career a Marxist and later became a Hegelian.”
Michael N. Forster, Hegel's Idea of a Phenomenology of Spirit

“Franciscus Junius and Theodore Marcilius followed different paths to the same goal: ignorance. The latter reached it by reading everything, the former by reading nothing...”
Joseph Justus Scaliger

43519 readers advisory for all — 5684 members — last activity Sep 13, 2025 11:35AM
life's too short to read crappy books. this is why readers' advisory exists. feel free to join if you are looking for "a book like____" or "a book tha ...more
596 Audiobooks — 16189 members — last activity 4 hours, 52 min ago
Audio & audiobooks are getting more and more popular for commuters & those wanting to squeeze in another book or two a month while doing other activit ...more
115105 Everything Booklikes & Leafmarks — 728 members — last activity Oct 08, 2020 03:13PM
Want to know about BookLikes? Want to know how those of us who are on BL find it? It's here. If you have a BL account, please post your name. If you h ...more
2802 Amazon Kindle — 11629 members — last activity 13 hours, 48 min ago
For readers using the Amazon Kindle ebook device.
1254079 What next, now notifications are reduced, DMs abolished, so GR is dying? — 294 members — last activity Jan 04, 2026 10:16AM
On 20 Sept 2024, GR removed the option for email notifications, without telling users (unless they looked at the "help" page). In-app/web notification ...more
More of Simon’s groups…
Comments (showing 1-16)    post a comment »
dateDown arrow    newest »

message 16: by Simon

Simon Maureen wrote: "Simon wrote: "Maureen wrote: "i'm starting to wonder if everybody stopped talking on goodreads around the same time i left. i keep visiting pages of old book chums and finding their comments are fr..."

That's a very cool observation about the Cabell! And I totally agree, that social media takes a lot of work. I often wish I could give it up but I don't think I'm strong enough for that.

Take care, Maureen. I hope to stay in touch one way or another!


message 15: by Maureen

Maureen Simon wrote: "Maureen wrote: "i'm starting to wonder if everybody stopped talking on goodreads around the same time i left. i keep visiting pages of old book chums and finding their comments are from the same pe..."

Hey Simon! Thanks for the reply and the link to your project. I took a quick look but i like the idea and the concept...

i do think there's actually going to be (if there isn't already) a lot of scholarship that can be founded on social media. Just ruminating about your comment regarding use of Goodreads and Facebook now -- and how, for myself, how i really don't think i can do a diffuse sort of social media anymore -- Goodreads is serving a specific purpose for you, and i think it will for me as well... while i haven't shut down my facebook or twitter profiles and probably won't, i don't think there's a driver to bring me back to those as a regular means of engagement. and when i think back before facebook to myspace, i had specific reasons to be there too. And i think most people on facebook nowadays are there to keep up with family or friends even if they don't always want to be (at least that was my experience before i took an extended break). instagram, for example, is likely to get more attention because i like taking photographs when i have the time but i can't find a discernible chronology for the newsfeed so i don't have to try to "keep up".

when i think about the time and energy having an active engagement through multiple social media sites, without a specific purpose, i can't imagine committing the level of time and energy i used to, and that's not just because i have less leisure time than i used to -- i think i just spread myself too thin. but it's good to know if i ever need to find you, i know where to look!

also to bring it back full circle, i think cabell would have been a social media maven. in one letter to guy holt at his publishers, he starts off by saying, "[w]e telepathed, so that our letters crossed" which made me realize that the correspondents from yesterday had their own variation of that sentiment about emails crossing in cyberspace, and used telepath as a verb. lots of other writers in this puppy. reading this book of correspondence between cabell and his editor and publisher and other writers feels a lot like i'm just stalking his facebook page. :P


message 14: by Simon

Simon Maureen wrote: "i'm starting to wonder if everybody stopped talking on goodreads around the same time i left. i keep visiting pages of old book chums and finding their comments are from the same period that i retr..."

Maureen! So nice to hear from you. I use GR these days just to keep a record of my reading and to-read lists, and to check out what my friends have to say about books I'm thinking of reading. I never write reviews anymore and rarely comment on other peoples. I'm pretty active on Facebook, though, if you ever decide to do more there.

Let me know about the Cabell correspondence. I have a feeling I wouldn't really like him now, but I may re-read some for the sake of a book I am writing. You can read about it here, if you are interested:
http://www.simonevnine.com/the-batman...

Hope you are well!


message 13: by Maureen

Maureen i'm starting to wonder if everybody stopped talking on goodreads around the same time i left. i keep visiting pages of old book chums and finding their comments are from the same period that i retreated from the internet.

hey simon! i hope you're swell. you will forever be my hero for sending me cabell books. i bought a book of his correspondence a while back -- haven't cracked it but i am sure once i do i will charmed and wish i had a time machine. :)


message 12: by Simon

Simon Miriam wrote: ""

That looks like some cake, Miriam! I feel I need it now!


message 11: by Mir

Mir


message 10: by Simon

Simon Maureen wrote: "facebook emailed me to tell me it was your birthday today... so of course i came to goodreads to give you felicitations of the day! happy birthday, simon! i hope this year is filled with wonderful ..."

Thanks Maureen! Hope you're well. :)


Maureen facebook emailed me to tell me it was your birthday today... so of course i came to goodreads to give you felicitations of the day! happy birthday, simon! i hope this year is filled with wonderful books. :)


Scribble Orca Happy New Year, Simon - all the best for 2014!


message 7: by Simon

Simon Scribble wrote: "Actually, neither, but that's neither here nor there :D. Thank you for the friending, Simon."

I puzzled over whether you were asking about your favorite authors, or mine. I plumped for mine, against the plain sense of the question, on the grounds that I couldn't possibly be expected to know yours!


Scribble Orca Actually, neither, but that's neither here nor there :D. Thank you for the friending, Simon.


message 5: by Simon

Simon You're very welcome. Glad they arrived safely, and hope you enjoy them. I look forward to any reviews of them you might write.


Maureen i got them today! hurray, hurray! THANK YOU SO MUCH. :) i am now going to post a status update where i publicly thank you. :)


message 3: by Simon

Simon I sent the books in two packages, so perhaps both of those slips will lead you to more Cabell!


Maureen hello simon! i got two package slips in the mail today and i'm guessing one of them means that i am about to receive the bounty of acidic 70s paperbacks! SO EXCITED! and what marvellous timing too-- just as i almost ready to take the silver stallion out of my purse! :)

will be back to confirm when they are in my grubby little paws but here's an advanced thanks! and hurray! :)

mo
xo


message 1: by Kris

Kris Thanks so much for the friend request, Simon! I agree -- being friends is both simpler and more satisfying than simply following. :)


back to top