Rallen

Rallen’s Bookshelves

to-read‎ (2046)
currently-reading‎ (1)
read‎ (742)
did-not-finish‎ (0)
20th-cent-british‎ (179)
translated‎ (66)
crime-thriller‎ (60)
childrens-ya‎ (57)
20th-cent-american‎ (44)

fantasy‎ (40)
classics‎ (37)
historical-fiction‎ (32)
backlisted-pod‎ (31)
culture‎ (30)
graphic-novels‎ (30)
booker-shortlist-nominee‎ (29)
biography-memoir‎ (27)
sci-fi‎ (25)

true-crime‎ (24)
booker-prize-winners‎ (22)
plays‎ (21)
ghosts-horror‎ (16)
occult-mysteries‎ (16)
short-stories‎ (16)
favorites‎ (15)
dystopian-future‎ (14)
music‎ (14)

sport‎ (12)
worst-books-ever-read‎ (12)
david-bowie-top-100‎ (11)
history‎ (9)
sexuality-erotica‎ (8)
pulitzer-prize‎ (5)
experimental-novels‎ (3)
poetry‎ (2)

Stats | More…

Rallen is Currently Reading

Rallen is currently reading

The Medusa Touch

by Peter Van Greenaway

bookshelves: currently-reading, 20th-cent-british, crime-thriller

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

progress:

(page 100 of 256)
— May 15, 2026 01:23AM

May 15, 2026 01:23AM

Rallen’s Quotes

“This was another of our fears: that Life wouldn't turn out to be like Literature.”
― Julian Barnes, The Sense of an Ending

2925 likes

“I am beginning to ramble. It is evening. The sea is golden, speckled with white points of light, lapping with a sort of mechanical self-satisfaction under a pale green sky. How huge it is, how empty, this great space for which I have been longing all my life.
Still no letters.”
― Iris Murdoch, The Sea, the Sea

12 likes

“Invited to think of the futuristic, we will still come up with something like the music of Kraftwerk, even though this is now as antique as Glenn Miller’s big band jazz was when the German group began experimenting with synthesizers in the early 1970s.”
― Mark Fisher, Ghosts of My Life: Writings on Depression, Hauntology and Lost Futures

6 likes

“I smelled of gin. Not just casually, as if I had taken four or five drinks of a winter morning to get out of bed on, but as if the Pacific Ocean was pure gin and I had nosedived off the boat deck. The gin was in my hair and eyebrows, on my chin and under my chin. It was on my shirt. I smelled like dead toads.”
― Raymond Chandler, The Lady in the Lake

18 likes

“That's some catch, that Catch-22,' he observed.
'It's the best there is,' Doc Daneeka agreed.
Yossarian saw it clearly in all its spinning reasonableness. There was an elliptical precision about its perfect pairs of parts that was graceful and shocking, like good modern art, and at times Yossarian wasn't quite sure that he saw it at all, just the way he was never quite sure about good modern art…”
― Joseph Heller, Catch-22

20 likes

More of Rallen’s quotes…

recent posts
Rallen’s Groups

21st Century Literature — 3658 members — last activity 11 minutes ago
We read literary fiction from 2000 to present, with the intent of finding those literary gems of timeless and enduring quality. We're less focused o ...more

Catching up on Classics (and lots more!) — 16311 members — last activity 9 minutes 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

ManBookering — 1780 members — last activity May 17, 2023 10:29AM
Join us as we read the backlist of Man Booker Prize winners and the nominees each year for the MBP!

Literary Award Winners Fiction Book Club — 1160 members — last activity Jun 04, 2026 08:42AM
Literary Award Winners Fiction Book Club is dedicated to reading award winning adult fiction books published in English from the four major awards org ...more

The Pickwick Club — 381 members — last activity Apr 04, 2020 10:42AM
Welcome to the Pickwick Club! This group is dedicated to reading, discussing, critiquing, and devouring the works of Charles Dickens.

More of Rallen’s groups…