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“If the world were merely seductive, that would be easy. If it were merely challenging, that would be no problem. But I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day.”
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―
“This is not to say there are not Chicagoans. But I would suggest that they are a nomadic people, whose lost home exists only in their minds, and in the glowing crystal memory cells they all carry in the palms of their hands: a great idea of a second city, lit with life and love, reasonable drink prices at cool bars, and, of course, blocks and blocks of bright and devastating fire.”
― The Areas of My Expertise: An Almanac of Complete World Knowledge Compiled with Instructive Annotation and Arranged in Useful Order
― The Areas of My Expertise: An Almanac of Complete World Knowledge Compiled with Instructive Annotation and Arranged in Useful Order
“A rowboat, without oars. An outboard motor. As you can sit there for years, forever, with that outboard motor, pulling again, and yet again, that rope, or cord, or wire, or whatever it is, and winding yet again, and each time, every single time, the motor, though it may give a cough or two, will fail to start, though if it starts, and when it starts, you are, at whatever speed you choose, within the engine's limits and the hazards of the course, well on your way, until it starts you are no nearer where you were going on the fifteenth try than on the first; the enterprise may last forever, and never yet quite begin. The fact seems to be, however, that unless some apparently unrelated event should intervene -- a bullet, a heart attack, a cry from shore that dinner's ready, or company has come, or junior's run away -- the engine will eventually start. In the meantime, though, while you have been intensely busy, it is difficult to account for how the time is spent.”
― Pitch Dark
― Pitch Dark
“I'm not absolutely certain of the facts, but I rather fancy it's Shakespeare who says that it's always just when a fellow is feeling particularly braced with things in general that Fate sneaks up behind him with the bit of lead piping.”
― Jeeves and the Unbidden Guest
― Jeeves and the Unbidden Guest
Contemporary British Literary Fiction
— 168 members
— last activity Oct 10, 2017 09:47AM
A place to discuss the likes of Salman Rushdie, Kazuo Ishiguro, Ian McEwan and Zadie Smith. I'll post reviews of some books to get things started, and ...more
readers advisory for all
— 5700 members
— last activity Sep 13, 2025 11:35AM
life's too short to read crappy books. this is why readers' advisory exists. feel free to join if you are looking for "a book like____" or "a book tha ...more
Q&A with Chris Emery
— 17 members
— last activity May 05, 2020 01:33AM
Join poet and publisher Chris Emery for a discussion group in celebration of the hardback release of his new poetry collection The Departure. This gro ...more
Pulp Fiction
— 1917 members
— last activity 10 hours, 51 min ago
Hard Boiled detective novels, noir, and great crime novels (old and new)
William’s 2025 Year in Books
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