Thomas B

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Thomas’s Bookshelves

to-read‎ (422)
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read‎ (473)
owned-physical‎ (117)
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owned-kindle‎ (49)
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lc-small-press-book-club‎ (14)
fav-reads-of-2024‎ (11)
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Thomas is Currently Reading

Thomas B is currently reading

Stoner

by John Williams

bookshelves: borrowed-books, fav-reads-of-2024, currently-reading, lc-small-press-book-club

Reading for the 2nd time

read in July 2024

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Thomas B said: " In the opening chapters of Stoner, Archer Sloane asks a young William, "Don't you know about yourself yet?" Stoner seems always to be pulled between the idea of what he wants and what he is willing to do. He thinks constantly about what would be burd In the opening chapters of Stoner, Archer Sloane asks a young William, "Don't you know about yourself yet?" Stoner seems always to be pulled between the idea of what he wants and what he is willing to do. He thinks constantly about what would be burdensome to others. Throughout the book, his placidity verges on ambivalence — as if he is aloof to the living of his own life. Sloane tells him later that he must remember what he is, and what he has chosen to become. We follow Stoner's becoming for the rest of his life.

I thought a lot about The Sun Also Rises as I read. There were many times where I wanted to reach through the page, grab Stoner by his shoulders, and shake him. He is often times a passenger when his life cries out for a pilot. In Hemingway's book, Jake is often a passenger (or, maybe, valet), especially as it relates to Brett. But we don’t spend a lifetime with Jake. We watch Stoner watch his life pass by.

So many passages stood out to me that I transferred about 18 pages worth of A5 to my little borrowed-books notebook. What is a teacher? Where are the bounds between complacency, apathy, and acceptance? What makes a life worth living – is it success? What is success? How much are you willing to give up for your principles? How much of what you do not yet possess are you willing to stake, blind?

Some of the most painful moments in the book are between Stoner and his child. They’re a collection of deaths so complete that in the end nothing is there really to die. They barely know one another, and in fact Stoner barely knows anyone at all. You might call that a failure, and Stoner thinks of it in this way until he considers kindness. He’s always thinking about how not to offend, to the extent that even his very few triumphs he thinks considers “amusingly contemptuous.”

Another disconnected thought: there’s a bit here about rural boy moves to ‘urban’ center and is irrevocably changed, so that when he visits home, he is an ‘alien.’ I know the feeling. There’s a lot here about inheritance and legacy, to an extent. Nothing that I have words for.

The writing… I loved the prose. I notice that Williams, in writing Stoner’s thinking, almost never phrases anything as positive, but as not negative. The phrase, “not unpleasant” appears repeatedly throughout. We get a crystal-clear sense of Stoner’s quasi-nihilistic view on life.

Not sure what else to say. I finished reading this about 30 minutes ago and need to let it cook for a bit. This is definitely the sort of story that appeals to me, though. Down to the occasional odd turn of phrase that I had to sit back and admire (the best in the closing chapters may be, “chaos of potentialities” – wowza). ...more "

progress:

(page 185 of 292)
— Jul 02, 2024 07:35PM

Jul 03, 2024 03:55PM · see review

Thomas B is currently reading

The Iliad

by Homer

bookshelves: currently-reading

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progress:

(page 56 of 848)
"Reading two chapters at a time w/ a group." — Jan 05, 2026 07:35PM

Jan 05, 2026 07:34PM

Thomas B is currently reading

An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding: with Hume's Abstract of A Treatise of Human Nature and A Letter from a Gentleman to His Friend in Edinburgh (Hackett Classics)

by David Hume

bookshelves: currently-reading

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Sep 01, 2025 05:20PM

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Thomas’s Notes & Highlights

A Man Without a Country by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

1 note & 65 highlights

I grew up at a time when comedy in this country was superb—it was the Great Depression.

See Thomas B’s 22 books with notes and highlights…

Thomas’s Quotes

“Yet each man kills the thing he loves,
By each let this be heard,
Some do it with a bitter look,
Some with a flattering word,
The coward does it with a kiss,
The brave man with a sword!

Some kill their love when they are young,
And some when they are old;
Some strangle with the hands of Gold:
The kindest use a knife, because
The dead so soon grow cold.

Some love too little, some too long,
Some sell and others buy;
Some do the deed with many tears,
And some without a sigh:
For each man kills the thing he loves,
Yet each man does not die.”
― Oscar Wilde, Selected Poems of Oscar Wilde including the Ballad of Reading Gaol

tags: 1897, ballad-of-reading-gaol

991 likes

“Torment in the dark was the danger that I feared, and it did not hold me back. But I would not have come, had I known the danger of light and joy. Now I have taken my worst wound in this parting, even if I were to go this night straight to the Dark Lord. Alas for Gimli son of Glóin!”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

tags: danger-of-joy, parting

54 likes

“In this age, in this country, public sentiment is everything. With it, nothing can fail; against it, nothing can succeed. Whoever molds public sentiment goes deeper than he who enacts statutes, or pronounces judicial decisions.”
― Abraham Lincoln

tags: power, public-opinion

34 likes

“It was written I should be loyal to the nightmare of my choice.”
― Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness

2198 likes

“The boy stood up and got his broom and put it over his shoulder. He looked at his father. What are our long term goals? he said. What? Our long term goals. Where did you hear that? I dont know. No, where did you? You said it. When? A long time ago. What was the answer? I dont know. Well. I dont either. Come on. It’s getting dark.”
― Cormac McCarthy, The Road

1 likes

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