Sign in with Facebook
76,303 books
—
283,834 voters
I find it difficult to understand the kind of human being who lives, or who is sure he can live, purely, happily, serenely while engaged in deceit.
“No tree, it is said, can grow to heaven unless its roots reach down to hell.”
―
―
“It is better to be unhappy and know the worst, than to be happy in a fool's paradise.”
― The Idiot
― The Idiot
“I think we ought to read only the kind of books that wound or stab us. If the book we're reading doesn't wake us up with a blow to the head, what are we reading for? So that it will make us happy, as you write? Good Lord, we would be happy precisely if we had no books, and the kind of books that make us happy are the kind we could write ourselves if we had to. But we need books that affect us like a disaster, that grieve us deeply, like the death of someone we loved more than ourselves, like being banished into forests far from everyone, like a suicide. A book must be the axe for the frozen sea within us. That is my belief.”
―
―
“If the rule you followed brought you to this, of what use was the rule?”
― No Country for Old Men
― No Country for Old Men
“Be silent and listen: have you recognized your madness and do you admit it? Have you noticed that all your foundations are completely mired in madness? Do you not want to recognize your madness and welcome it in a friendly manner? You wanted to accept everything. So accept madness too. Let the light of your madness shine, and it will suddenly dawn on you. Madness is not to be despised and not to be feared, but instead you should give it life...If you want to find paths, you should also not spurn madness, since it makes up such a great part of your nature...Be glad that you can recognize it, for you will thus avoid becoming its victim. Madness is a special form of the spirit and clings to all teachings and philosophies, but even more to daily life, since life itself is full of craziness and at bottom utterly illogical. Man strives toward reason only so that he can make rules for himself. Life itself has no rules. That is its mystery and its unknown law. What you call knowledge is an attempt to impose something comprehensible on life.”
― The Red Book: A Reader's Edition
― The Red Book: A Reader's Edition
Existential Book Club
— 1477 members
— last activity Dec 21, 2025 02:39PM
This a book club for anybody interested in reading existentialist literature and fiction. Every month I'll be putting up a new text either by an exist ...more
midnight readers
— 2848 members
— last activity Jan 07, 2026 08:24AM
hii i’m making this group for readers who have many different interests!! if you are an active Goodreads user, a hopeless romantics, a night reader, l ...more
Catching up on Classics (and lots more!)
— 15833 members
— last activity 1 hour, 29 min ago
The world is made up of two kinds of people: first, those who love classics, and second, those who have not yet read a classic. Be bold and join us as ...more
Vas’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Vas’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
Favorite Genres
Polls voted on by Vas
Lists liked by Vas
