1483 ratings (3.94 avg)
856 reviews
more photos (5)

William2

https://www.goodreads.com/williamtwo

William2’s Bookshelves

to-read‎ (729)
currently-reading‎ (2)
read‎ (1497)
20-ce‎ (1303)
fiction‎ (1067)
us‎ (775)
translation‎ (532)
uk‎ (511)
nonfiction‎ (462)
21-ce‎ (410)
history‎ (204)
poetry‎ (148)

19-ce‎ (134)
memoir‎ (112)
criticism‎ (106)
candidate-to-reread‎ (103)
short-stories‎ (100)
do-not-own‎ (92)
italy‎ (85)
war‎ (85)
russia‎ (83)
signed‎ (82)
france‎ (76)
japan‎ (75)

autobiography‎ (73)
ww-ii‎ (71)
germany‎ (66)
biography‎ (63)
travel‎ (63)
essays‎ (60)
religion‎ (56)
antiquity‎ (49)
empire-post-colonial‎ (49)
cultural-studies‎ (48)
genocide‎ (42)
drama‎ (39)

austria‎ (37)
christianity‎ (37)
latin-america‎ (37)
poland‎ (36)
18-ce‎ (32)
gay-homosex‎ (31)
ireland‎ (31)
spirituality‎ (29)
philosophy‎ (28)
psychology‎ (28)
medicine‎ (26)
buddhism‎ (25)

Stats | More…

William2 is Currently Reading

William2 is currently reading

Chéri and The End of Chéri

by Colette

bookshelves: 20-ce, fiction, france, translation, us, currently-reading

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

William2 said: " The competition of the vanities astonishes.

"She's the perfect daughter for Marie-Laure," Léa thought, observing her closely. "She possesses discreetly everything that her mother possesses flamboyantly. Fluffy hair, ash-colored, as if powdered, restle ...more "

Dec 07, 2025 07:01PM · see review

William2 is currently reading

Culture and Imperialism

by Edward W. Said

bookshelves: 20-ce, empire-post-colonial, us, criticism, currently-reading

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

William2 said: " This is a book to be pondered. Its core is post-colonial politics and comparative literature. It is intellectually dense and calls out for ongoing consideration while reading. Author Said was no stylist, but a very brilliant man whose grasp of a vast ...more "

progress:

(page 123 of 402)
— Nov 16, 2025 06:04PM

Nov 06, 2025 06:33PM · see review

William2’s Quotes

“When we traveled for two and half days, we reached the Deads' road from which dead babies drove us, and when we reached there, we could not travel on it because of fearful dead babies, etc. which were still on it.”
― Amos Tutuola

tags: dead-babies

5 likes

“The novella will be called, I think, “The Messiah of Stockholm.” It takes place in Stockholm. I’d better say no more, or the Muse will wipe it out.”
― Cynthia Ozick, The Messiah of Stockholm

tags: creativity-paris-review, writing, writing-process

2 likes

“...neither fate, nor history, nor the anger of the State, nor the glory or infamy of battle has any power to affect those who call themselves human beings. No, whatever life holds in store --- hard-won glory, poverty and despair, or death in a labor camp --- they will live as human beings and die as human beings, the same as those who have already perished; and in this alone lies man's eternal and bitter victory over all the grandiose and inhuman forces that ever have been or will be...”
― Vasily Grossman, Life and Fate

19 likes

“I find it’s more fun to write about something that you don’t know completely and that you will discover on route. A dear friend of mine...once said: 'The only time I know anything is when it comes to me at the point of my pen.' So I think that if you start to write about things that you know half well, that you’re fascinated by, that you sense you have an appreciation of that others might not have, but you do have to acquire the knowledge as you go, you discover a great many things at the point of a pen. And it keeps the writing alive in itself in a way.
(in an interview with Martin Amis, 1991, see YouTube)”
― Norman Mailer

tags: 1991, interview, martin-amis

17 likes

“Whatever reader desires to have a thorough comprehension of an author's thoughts cannot take a better method than by putting himself into the circumstances and postures of life that the author was in upon every important passage as it flowed from his pen; for this will introduce a parity and strict correspondence of ideas between the reader and the author. Now, to assist the diligent reader in so delicate an affair, as far as brevity will permit, I have recollected that the shrewdest pieces of this treatise were conceived in bed in a garret; at other times (for a reason best known to myself) I thought fit to sharpen my invention with hunger; and in general, the whole work was begun, continued, and ended under a long course of physic and great want of money.”
― Jonathan Swift, A Tale of a Tub

11 likes

More of William2’s quotes…