Sign in with Facebook
370 books
—
282 voters
to-read
(2503)
currently-reading (27)
read (743)
did-not-finish (0)
tbr-twin-2022 (124)
classics (99)
the-catcher-in-the-rye (89)
i-own (86)
self-help-books-i-own (81)
philosophy (74)
science-fiction (69)
classic (66)
currently-reading (27)
read (743)
did-not-finish (0)
tbr-twin-2022 (124)
classics (99)
the-catcher-in-the-rye (89)
i-own (86)
self-help-books-i-own (81)
philosophy (74)
science-fiction (69)
classic (66)
read-in-2017
(63)
writing (61)
fairytales-myths-and-ledgends (56)
poetry (56)
russian-literature (49)
esoteric (44)
ww2 (43)
fantasy (40)
historical-fiction (38)
mkfs (38)
money-and-panics (37)
john-taylor-gatto-s-history-lesson (36)
writing (61)
fairytales-myths-and-ledgends (56)
poetry (56)
russian-literature (49)
esoteric (44)
ww2 (43)
fantasy (40)
historical-fiction (38)
mkfs (38)
money-and-panics (37)
john-taylor-gatto-s-history-lesson (36)
(and they’ve been going at it for so long that George Eliot parodied them all the way back in the 1870s, with Casaubon’s ‘Key to all Mythologies’ in Middlemarch).
“The problem is not that Afghans unite and then cannot be conquered; the problem is that Afghans fragment and then cannot be governed”
― Games Without Rules: The Often Interrupted History of Afghanistan
― Games Without Rules: The Often Interrupted History of Afghanistan
“Maybe, kneeling down to atoms, they're becoming atom-sized in their souls. Maybe a specialist is only a coward, afraid to look out of his little cage. And think what any specialist misses--the whole world over his fence.”
― East of Eden
― East of Eden
“Don't ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody.”
―
―
“No serious sociologist any longer believes that the voice of the people expresses any divine or specially wise and lofty idea. The voice of the people expresses the mind of the people, and that mind is made up for it by the group leaders in whom it believes and by those persons who understand the manipulation of public opinion. It is composed of inherited prejudices and symbols and cliches and verbal formulas supplied to them by the leaders.”
― Propaganda
― Propaganda
“Once three men were confined in a pitch-dark prison. Two of the men were intelligent, but one of them was a simpleton who knew nothing at all: he couldn’t put his clothes on, he didn’t know how to eat; nothing. One of the intelligent men worked hard to teach the simpleton to dress himself, to eat, to hold a spoon, and so on. The other intelligent man did nothing at all. One day the hardworking man asked the indifferent one, “Why don’t you make some effort to help teach the simpleton?” The other replied, “In this darkness you’ll teach him nothing, no matter how many years you spend. I use my time thinking of ways to break a hole in the wall to let in the light. When that happens, he’ll learn on his own what he needs to know.”
― Yiddish Folktales
― Yiddish Folktales
2026 Reading Challenge
— 35278 members
— last activity 4 minutes ago
❗❗❗ AUTHORS BEWARE! ❗❗❗ Scammers are targeting authors using moderator profile names and spoofed email addresses, offering to promote books in this gr ...more
Never too Late to Read Classics
— 12305 members
— last activity 7 minutes ago
NTLTRC will help you find your love of Classcis! Find intrigue, well-developed characters, prose that is complex and beautiful, compelling stories tha ...more
Breaking The Code To The Catcher In The Rye
— 64 members
— last activity Aug 20, 2023 09:03PM
This is a group to explore the esoteric writings of The Catcher In The Rye through the lens of WW1 and WW2. To define that I take a quote from Phil ...more
Catching up on Classics (and lots more!)
— 16317 members
— last activity 1 hour, 41 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
Language & Grammar
— 2167 members
— last activity May 05, 2026 11:41AM
This group is for word lovers and has topics both serious (grammatical questions and concerns) and not so serious (word play and word games of all sor ...more
Cosmic’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Cosmic’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
10,084 books
|
905 friends
218 books
|
13 friends
3,146 books
|
869 friends
4,477 books
|
580 friends
2,903 books
|
25 friends
58,124 books
|
67 friends
931 books
|
2,800 friends
6,734 books
|
50 friends
More friends…
Favorite Genres
Art, Classics, Cookbooks, Fantasy, History, Memoir, Non-fiction, Philosophy, Poetry, Psychology, Science, Science fiction, Self help, and writing
Polls voted on by Cosmic
Lists liked by Cosmic
