191 books
—
173 voters
to-read
(355)
currently-reading (1)
read (142)
did-not-finish (0)
would-recommend (77)
fiction (53)
brain-got-bigger (51)
non-fiction (34)
made-me-cry (29)
fantasy (28)
favourites (27)
real-history (24)
currently-reading (1)
read (142)
did-not-finish (0)
would-recommend (77)
fiction (53)
brain-got-bigger (51)
non-fiction (34)
made-me-cry (29)
fantasy (28)
favourites (27)
real-history (24)
sci-fi
(22)
made-me-believe-in-love (21)
gender-tension (17)
underrated (16)
ya (16)
leftist-education (14)
racial-education (14)
manga (13)
sexuality (13)
sociology (13)
classics (12)
star-wars-reads (12)
made-me-believe-in-love (21)
gender-tension (17)
underrated (16)
ya (16)
leftist-education (14)
racial-education (14)
manga (13)
sexuality (13)
sociology (13)
classics (12)
star-wars-reads (12)
“Does such a thing as 'the fatal flaw,' that showy dark crack running down the middle of a life, exist outside literature? I used to think it didn't. Now I think it does. And I think that mine is this: a morbid longing for the picturesque at all costs.”
― The Secret History
― The Secret History
“The trouble is that we have a bad habit, encouraged by pedants and sophisticates, of considering happiness as something rather stupid. Only pain is intellectual, only evil interesting. This is the treason of the artist; a refusal to admit the banality of evil and the terrible boredom of pain.”
― The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas
― The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas
“Old stories would tell how Weavers would kill each other over aesthetic disagreements, such as whether it was prettier to destroy an army of a thousand men or to leave it be, or whether a particular dandelion should or should not be plucked. For a Weaver, to think was to think aesthetically. To act--to Weave--was to bring about more pleasing patterns. They did not eat physical food: they seemed to subsist on the appreciation of beauty.”
― Perdido Street Station
― Perdido Street Station
“I'll make my report as if I told a story, for I was taught as a child on my homeworld that Truth is a matter of the imagination.”
― The Left Hand of Darkness
― The Left Hand of Darkness
“Nowadays you have to be a scientist if you want to be a killer. No, no, I was neither. Ladies and gentleman of the jury, the majority of sex offenders that hanker for some throbbing, sweet-moaning, physical but not necessarily coital, relation with a girl-child, are innocuous, inadequate, passive, timid strangers who merely ask the community to allow them to pursue their practically harmless, so-called aberrant behavior, their little hot wet private acts of sexual deviation without the police and society cracking down upon them. We are not sex fiends! We do not rape as good soldiers do. We are unhappy, mild, dog-eyed gentlemen, sufficiently well integrated to control our urge in the presence of adults, but ready to give years and years of life for one chance to touch a nymphet. Emphatically, no killers are we. Poets never kill.”
― Lolita
― Lolita
Rory’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Rory’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
Favorite Genres
Polls voted on by Rory
Lists liked by Rory























