25 books
—
202 voters
Daniel Villines
is currently reading
Daniel Villines said:
"
24 MAR 26: "The Four Dutchmen" ***
This is the last story in the Cosmopolitans collection. But since the collection has no central theme or order to it, this is also just another story.
Lake many of these stories, "The Four Dutchmen" is more of an excu ...more "
“A man is an island in the only sense that matters, not an easy way to be. We live in mystery, a cosmos of separate lonely bodies, men, insects, stars. It is all loneliness and men know it best.”
― Dubin's Lives
― Dubin's Lives
“A book is made from a tree. It is an assemblage of flat, flexible parts (still called "leaves") imprinted with dark pigmented squiggles. One glance at it and you hear the voice of another person, perhaps someone dead for thousands of years. Across the millennia, the author is speaking, clearly and silently, inside your head, directly to you. Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding together people, citizens of distant epochs, who never knew one another. Books break the shackles of time ― proof that humans can work magic.”
―
―
“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.”
―
―
“A story has no beginning or end: arbitrarily one chooses that moment of experience from which to look back or from which to look ahead.”
― The End of the Affair
― The End of the Affair
“It's true, I am afraid of dying. I am afraid of the world moving forward without me, of my absence going unnoticed, or worse, being some natural force propelling life on. Is it selfish? Am I such a bad person for dreaming of a world that ends when I do? I don't mean the world ending with respect to me, but every set of eyes closing with mine.”
― Everything is Illuminated
― Everything is Illuminated
The Importance of Reading Ernest
— 344 members
— last activity Jan 26, 2026 01:11AM
A book club for those who want to read and talk about Hemingway's work. We'll read a new novel or short story collection every month and talk about it ...more
SCOTUS History and Philosophy
— 47 members
— last activity Jul 19, 2022 04:53PM
A discussion of cases and issues and books related to the U.S. Note that this group is basically defunct. I am referring people to Alan Johnson's very ...more
Should a Book be Judged by the Author's Personal Morality
— 92 members
— last activity May 04, 2020 11:15AM
If I’m not mistaken, one of the issues surrounding the GR take-down was whether a reviewer could ignore the content of a book and leave one-star and n ...more
Goodreads Librarians Group
— 321276 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
Daniel’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Daniel’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
More friends…
Favorite Genres
Polls voted on by Daniel
Lists liked by Daniel























































