790 ratings | 180 reviews | avg rating:3.62

Richard C. Cox’s Followers (58)

Richard’s Bookshelves

to-read (0)
currently-reading (0)
read (792)
did-not-finish (0)
a-nonfiction-assortment (95)
art-and-anti-art (38)
crime-n-grime (31)
fantasy (26)
general-fiction (164)
labcoats-and-telescopes (113)
See all bookshelves »

Richard’s Friends (74)

Robert

5,069 books | 1,036 friends

S. Scott

3,861 books | 102 friends

Liz~In~Colorado

483 books | 474 friends

Debbie Zapata

2,531 books | 97 friends

~*~Princess Nya Vasiliev~*~

2,906 books | 59 friends

aegruam

328 books | 11 friends

roxy

914 books | 1,395 friends

Khalid Abdul-Mumin

9,249 books | 367 friends

More friends…

Richard C. Cox

Goodreads Author

Born

in England

Member Since

October 2013

edit data

I grew up on a planet as different from this one as you could imagine. It was a place where books were more important than anything else (even our tiny village had a special building full of them called "The Library"), there were no responsibilities whatsoever and as much time for reading as you could wish for.
But then, with no warning, disaster: one evening, when I was a teenager, a spaceship appeared in the sky over our house; a shaft of light slanted down and I was abducted, whisked away, to the planet on which I've been stranded ever since. And it's a waking-nightmare of a world: here you have to work for a living (all day), pay "taxes" and do ghastly things called "laundry", "hoovering" and "shopping"—not just once either, but o ...more

Learn more
Ask the Author

To ask Richard C. Cox questions, please sign up.

Popular Answered Questions

Are you planning to release any other books? Or is The Everything everything?

Richard C. Cox Apologies, Ebony, for taking so long to answer this—Goodreads have been messing with the site again, and I’ve only just found it (that’s GR for you th…moreApologies, Ebony, for taking so long to answer this—Goodreads have been messing with the site again, and I’ve only just found it (that’s GR for you though: all the things which do badly need fixing, they never touch, while all the stuff that’s fine already is what they change!)

I have thought about some sort of follow-up to the book—it was unusual, though, the way that came together. The idea overall was to try to give the reader a fresh look at our universe—I’ve long thought our own world is so odd, so decidedly peculiar, it almost looks like fiction itself, but how do you get that feeling across? The problem is that we’re looking at it all from the inside, so to speak, from here, and maybe what you’d need would be to somehow see it from the outside, from a completely fresh vantage point, looking back at it from somewhere different. So the idea was to give the reader a couple of hundred pages of that “somewhere different”, then (embedded in it, probably near the end) a glimpse of here. Try to catch the reader’s mind unawares, in other words, sort of spring it on them.

I had that simple idea ages ago, but all the actual stuff that fills the book’s pages—all the weird landscapes, buildings, animals and plants, theories and stories, works of art and all the rest—only accumulated slowly, and in no particular order either, over decades. I don’t think there’s any possible way of repeating that, and in any case the idea from early on was also to try to finish up with something as unclassifiable as possible—an absolute one-off.

Not sure it worked anyway; another reason I’ve been slow to write anything else is the pasting the book has taken from some readers, particularly on Amazon, who clearly had no idea what to make of it! So The Everything, almost certainly, really is everything.(less)

flag

3 likes · like
2 comments

Hi Richard, does your book 'The Everything' touch on systems thinking theories in various disciplines as well?

Richard C. Cox Sorry for not answering this sooner, I've just found it (although being a mere eleven months late is actually pretty good for me!)

There's a fair amoun…moreSorry for not answering this sooner, I've just found it (although being a mere eleven months late is actually pretty good for me!)

There's a fair amount about theories and theorising in the book, none of it particularly serious though: there are real ones (i.e. theories which are "real" within the context of the book itself); there's also a whole new branch of philosophy, called Structured Nonsense, which has nothing to do with the search for truth and is more about theorising purely for its own sake, as fun (theorising is fun!); and finally, at one point, there's an essay about whether or not theories are an art-form. (less)

flag

1 like · like
Comment

See 2 answers from Richard C. Cox…

Combine Editions
Richard C. Cox’s books

Average rating: 3.95 · 43 ratings · 17 reviews · 1 distinct work • Similar authors

The Everything

3.95 avg rating — 43 ratings — published 2013 — 7 editions

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

* Note: these are all the books on Goodreads for this author. To add more, click here.

0 posts
Richard C. Cox's Blog

Richard C. Cox hasn't written any blog posts yet.

rss
Richard’s Recent Updates

Richard rated a book really liked it A Planet of Viruses by Carl Zimmer (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
May 19, 2026 12:49PM · 2 likes · like
Richard rated a book it was amazing The Stranger in the Woods by Michael Finkel (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
I’ve no idea what winter in central Maine is like, but I’ve been trying to imagine sleeping outdoors there, in a tent, with no heating (not even a campfire because smoke might give away your position) would be like. Christopher Knight did just that—f ...more
Apr 28, 2026 03:05AM · 9 likes · like · see review
Richard rated a book it was amazing How Life Works: A User’s Guide to the New Biology by Philip Ball	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Apr 28, 2026 03:01AM · 1 like · like
Richard rated a book really liked it Artificial You: AI and the Future of Your Mind by Susan Schneider (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Imagine a guy who, as a young man, builds himself a boat. He looks after it too, replacing damaged and worn-out parts as the years pass. By the time he’s an old man sitting on the dock one day, he suddenly realises that down the years he’s replaced e ...more
Feb 25, 2026 01:08PM · 6 likes · like · see review
Richard rated a book really liked it Forever Today: A True Story of Lost Memory and Never-Ending Love by Deborah Wearing	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
“How long’s it been?” “Four years.” “Four years??!! I haven’t heard anything, smelled anything, felt anything, touched anything, seen anything the whole time. How long?” “Four years.” “Four years!!! Is that F-O-R or F-O-U-R?” “…F-O-U-R ...more
Feb 06, 2026 04:42AM · 10 likes · like · see review
Richard rated a book really liked it Seven Clues to the Origin of Life: A Scientific Detective Story (Canto) (Volume 0) by A.G. Cairns-Smith	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Feb 06, 2026 04:39AM · 1 like · like
Richard rated a book really liked it The Leafcutter Ants: Civilization by Instinct by Bert Hölldobler	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Feb 06, 2026 04:38AM · 1 like · like
Richard rated a book really liked it Sunset at Zero Point by Simon Stålenhag	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
This is the fifth of Simon Stålenhag’s narrative art books, a combination of paintings and text. The artwork, his landscapes in particular, is brilliant as always. Also as always, this is a large-format hardback in full colour—expensive, but I can’t ...more
Jan 18, 2026 04:30AM · 8 likes · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Sunset at Zero Point by Simon Stålenhag. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Sunset at Zero Point by Simon Stålenhag <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">

More of Richard's books…

Quotes by Richard C. Cox (?)

“...While I rather doubt whether, as has often been claimed, everyone has at least one novel inside them, it is undeniably true of theories...”
― Richard C. Cox

tags: novels, theories

1 likes

Topics Mentioning This Author

topics	posts	views	last activity
Goodreads Authors...: * Author List	7867	21604	May 30, 2026 05:39PM

Richard’s Quotes

“To go wrong in one's own way is better than to go right in someone else's.”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment

tags: independent-thought, self-determination, self-expression

6798 likes

“It is not my intention to make anything comprehensible. I am of the opinion that there are sufficient paintings which one understands after a shorter or longer delay, and that therefore some incomprehensible painting would now be welcome. I am at pains to deliver such, as far as possible.”
― Rene Magritte

7 likes