J. Aleksandr Wootton
Goodreads Author
Born
in The United States
Website
Twitter
Genre
Influences
G.K. Chesterton, C.S. Lewis, Ursula K. Le Guin, Peter S. Beagle, J.R.R
...more
Member Since
March 2008
URL
https://www.goodreads.com/mrwootton
To ask
J. Aleksandr Wootton
questions,
please sign up.
Popular Answered Questions
More books by J. Aleksandr Wootton…
J.’s Recent Updates
|
J. Wootton
is now friends with
Mandy Esteves
|
|
|
J. Wootton
rated a book liked it
|
|
| I always wince a little inside when preparing to give a Sanderson book less than 4 stars; I half-suspect I'll be murderously mobbed by rabid fans (like Maenads, or Swifties). So let me hasten to say that this book was a lot of fun, its setting makes ...more | |
|
J. Wootton
is now following Jacques's reviews
|
|
|
J. Wootton
liked
a
quote
“Yes! No! How necessary it is to have opinions! I think the spotted trout lilies are satisfied, standing a few inches above the earth. I think serenity is not something you just find in the world, like a plum tree, holding up its white petals. The violets, along the river, are opening their blue faces, like small dark lanterns. The green mosses, being so many, are as good as brawny. How important it is to walk along, not in haste but slowly, looking at everything and calling out Yes! No! The swan, for all his pomp, his robes of glass and petals, wants only to be allowed to live on the nameless pond. The catbrier is without fault. The water thrushes, down among the sloppy rocks, are going crazy with happiness. Imagination is better than a sharp instrument. To pay attention, this is our endless and proper work.”
Mary Oliver |
|
|
J. Wootton
liked
a
quote
“I want to think again of dangerous and noble things.
I want to be light and frolicsome. I want to be improbable beautiful and afraid of nothing, as though I had wings.” Mary Oliver |
|
|
J. Wootton
rated a book really liked it
|
|
|
Oliver isn't exclusively a nature poet, but she is native to nature in a genuine, unburdened, self-orienting way. Her writing reminds me that I have been outside, and that I should go outside again, longer, oftener. Her poetry makes me grateful. ...more |
|
|
J. Wootton
rated a book liked it
|
|
| Been on my shelf for years, waiting to be read. By the time I picked it up I was aware that there were allegations against Gaiman, but I waited til after I'd read it to find out what they were. (Gross & appalling, by the way. Hope they're not true bu ...more | |
|
J. Wootton
rated a book liked it
|
|
| I've read this collection twice now, since picking it out of a bookstore clearance section years ago, both times enjoying it very much and twice deciding to keep it. Marion has a way of hallowing the vistas and people and rural realities of his visio ...more | |
|
J. Wootton
rated a book really liked it
|
|
| This book barely tipped over into 4 stars for me, which is sort of blasphemy because there aren't many books that legitimately deserve that favorite critics' cliche "a monumental achievement" and Anathem absolutely does. It is, eventually, a brillian ...more | |
|
J. Wootton
rated a book it was ok
|
|
| Although I sympathize both with Ausubel's desire to novelize her grandmother's actual life story and her desire to imbue it, somehow, with hope and with narrative empowerment, the attempt here at magical realism landed somehow as a sort of object les ...more | |
“Live in the moment... but don't be led by the moment, or the people who belong to it.”
― Her Unwelcome Inheritance
― Her Unwelcome Inheritance
“The November evening had a bite; it nibbled not-quite-gently at her cheeks and ears. In Virginia the late autumn was a lover, still, but a dangerous one.”
― The Eighth Square
― The Eighth Square
“Why are roses kept for their blossoms rather than shunned for their thorns?”
― Her Unwelcome Inheritance
― Her Unwelcome Inheritance
Topics Mentioning This Author
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Goodreads Librari...:
Goodreads Author profiles needing merging BY GR STAFF pt. 8
|
919 | 692 | May 30, 2014 04:35PM |
“The telephone bell was ringing wildly, but without result, since there was no-one in the room but the corpse.”
― War in Heaven
― War in Heaven
“I've been making a list of the things they don't teach you at school. They don't teach you how to love somebody. They don't teach you how to be famous. They don't teach you how to be rich or how to be poor. They don't teach you how to walk away from someone you don't love any longer. They don't teach you how to know what's going on in someone else's mind. They don't teach you what to say to someone who's dying. They don't teach you anything worth knowing.”
― The Sandman, Vol. 9: The Kindly Ones
― The Sandman, Vol. 9: The Kindly Ones
“Have you ever been in love? Horrible isn't it? It makes you so vulnerable. It opens your chest and it opens up your heart and it means that someone can get inside you and mess you up.”
― The Sandman, Vol. 9: The Kindly Ones
― The Sandman, Vol. 9: The Kindly Ones
“I can believe things that are true and things that aren't true and I can believe things where nobody knows if they're true or not.
I can believe in Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny and the Beatles and Marilyn Monroe and Elvis and Mister Ed. Listen - I believe that people are perfectable, that knowledge is infinite, that the world is run by secret banking cartels and is visited by aliens on a regular basis, nice ones that look like wrinkled lemurs and bad ones who mutilate cattle and want our water and our women.
I believe that the future sucks and I believe that the future rocks and I believe that one day White Buffalo Woman is going to come back and kick everyone's ass. I believe that all men are just overgrown boys with deep problems communicating and that the decline in good sex in America is coincident with the decline in drive-in movie theaters from state to state.
I believe that all politicians are unprincipled crooks and I still believe that they are better than the alternative. I believe that California is going to sink into the sea when the big one comes, while Florida is going to dissolve into madness and alligators and toxic waste.
I believe that antibacterial soap is destroying our resistance to dirt and disease so that one day we'll all be wiped out by the common cold like martians in War of the Worlds.
I believe that the greatest poets of the last century were Edith Sitwell and Don Marquis, that jade is dried dragon sperm, and that thousands of years ago in a former life I was a one-armed Siberian shaman.
I believe that mankind's destiny lies in the stars. I believe that candy really did taste better when I was a kid, that it's aerodynamically impossible for a bumble bee to fly, that light is a wave and a particle, that there's a cat in a box somewhere who's alive and dead at the same time (although if they don't ever open the box to feed it it'll eventually just be two different kinds of dead), and that there are stars in the universe billions of years older than the universe itself.
I believe in a personal god who cares about me and worries and oversees everything I do. I believe in an impersonal god who set the universe in motion and went off to hang with her girlfriends and doesn't even know that I'm alive. I believe in an empty and godless universe of causal chaos, background noise, and sheer blind luck.
I believe that anyone who says sex is overrated just hasn't done it properly. I believe that anyone who claims to know what's going on will lie about the little things too.
I believe in absolute honesty and sensible social lies. I believe in a woman's right to choose, a baby's right to live, that while all human life is sacred there's nothing wrong with the death penalty if you can trust the legal system implicitly, and that no one but a moron would ever trust the legal system.
I believe that life is a game, that life is a cruel joke, and that life is what happens when you're alive and that you might as well lie back and enjoy it.”
― American Gods
I can believe in Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny and the Beatles and Marilyn Monroe and Elvis and Mister Ed. Listen - I believe that people are perfectable, that knowledge is infinite, that the world is run by secret banking cartels and is visited by aliens on a regular basis, nice ones that look like wrinkled lemurs and bad ones who mutilate cattle and want our water and our women.
I believe that the future sucks and I believe that the future rocks and I believe that one day White Buffalo Woman is going to come back and kick everyone's ass. I believe that all men are just overgrown boys with deep problems communicating and that the decline in good sex in America is coincident with the decline in drive-in movie theaters from state to state.
I believe that all politicians are unprincipled crooks and I still believe that they are better than the alternative. I believe that California is going to sink into the sea when the big one comes, while Florida is going to dissolve into madness and alligators and toxic waste.
I believe that antibacterial soap is destroying our resistance to dirt and disease so that one day we'll all be wiped out by the common cold like martians in War of the Worlds.
I believe that the greatest poets of the last century were Edith Sitwell and Don Marquis, that jade is dried dragon sperm, and that thousands of years ago in a former life I was a one-armed Siberian shaman.
I believe that mankind's destiny lies in the stars. I believe that candy really did taste better when I was a kid, that it's aerodynamically impossible for a bumble bee to fly, that light is a wave and a particle, that there's a cat in a box somewhere who's alive and dead at the same time (although if they don't ever open the box to feed it it'll eventually just be two different kinds of dead), and that there are stars in the universe billions of years older than the universe itself.
I believe in a personal god who cares about me and worries and oversees everything I do. I believe in an impersonal god who set the universe in motion and went off to hang with her girlfriends and doesn't even know that I'm alive. I believe in an empty and godless universe of causal chaos, background noise, and sheer blind luck.
I believe that anyone who says sex is overrated just hasn't done it properly. I believe that anyone who claims to know what's going on will lie about the little things too.
I believe in absolute honesty and sensible social lies. I believe in a woman's right to choose, a baby's right to live, that while all human life is sacred there's nothing wrong with the death penalty if you can trust the legal system implicitly, and that no one but a moron would ever trust the legal system.
I believe that life is a game, that life is a cruel joke, and that life is what happens when you're alive and that you might as well lie back and enjoy it.”
― American Gods
Goodreads Librarians Group
— 306586 members
— last activity 0 minutes ago
Goodreads Librarians are volunteers who help ensure the accuracy of information about books and authors in the Goodreads' catalog. The Goodreads Libra ...more
Connecting Readers and Writers
— 3935 members
— last activity Dec 11, 2025 12:27PM
We connect adventurous readers with Indie Authors. This group is about connecting writers with readers in a way that has not been done on Goodreads b ...more
Indie Authors Monthly Magazine For Authors and Readers
— 5540 members
— last activity 21 hours, 28 min ago
This Is A Group for Readers,Writers and Reviewers of All Different Genres. Let US Take Your Book To New Heights! Our Goals Are To Help Promote Authors ...more
Children's Books
— 6897 members
— last activity 4 hours, 10 min ago
From picture-books to juvenile fiction, award-winners to overlooked gems, the world of children's literature provides an endless supply of fabulous bo ...more
Mythic Fiction
— 1196 members
— last activity Jan 03, 2026 09:07PM
A group for people to discuss and recommend works of mythic fiction. Mythic fiction is literature that contains elements from mythology, fairytales, l ...more
Folklore & Fairytales
— 379 members
— last activity Dec 17, 2025 11:06AM
For everyone who is interested in folklore and fairytales, either as a reader/hearer, writer/storyteller, or researcher.
Making Connections
— 14766 members
— last activity 2 hours, 52 min ago
Read, Review, and Make Connections
The Next Best Book Club
— 25912 members
— last activity 1 hour, 53 min ago
Are you searching for the NEXT best book? Are you willing to kiss all your spare cash goodbye? Are you easily distracted by independent bookshops, bi ...more
GR Friends Messages and Chatting
— 178 members
— last activity 10 hours, 35 min ago
With PMs being no longer available, I hope this group will help us with keeping in touch.
J.R.R. Tolkien
— 3847 members
— last activity Dec 26, 2025 03:51AM
Discussion, recommendations, and all-over appreciation for Britain's own myth maker, Professor J.R.R. Tolkien. ...more
Comments (showing 1-4)
post a comment »
date
newest »
newest »
Sørina wrote: "I'm looking for a recommendation: I'd like a lovely little collection of poetry celebrating the beauties of the body. A sweet little hardback (like the Everyman's Pocket Poetry editions) would be n..."Ooh - I wish I did! When you find it, let me know; and if you don't, let's put that in the project queue to issue a CFS for.
I'm looking for a recommendation: I'd like a lovely little collection of poetry celebrating the beauties of the body. A sweet little hardback (like the Everyman's Pocket Poetry editions) would be nice, and I'd prefer an anthology rather than a single-authored collection. Do you have any suggestions?
Hello, J. Aleksandr! Thanks for the Friend Request--I accept! Congratulations on your publishing success! I like your definition of 'bookworm,' er, 'bookdragon,' and your quote by Carol Shields! I can't believe I've never seen that before, it's so perfect--thank you for having it among your quotes for me to find! I hope you're having a good weekend and will have a good week ahead.Best wishes from Majenta



















































