“And I like Strauss and Mozart and all that, but the priceless gift that African Americans gave the world when they were still in slavery was a gift so great that it is now almost the only reason many foreigners still like us at least a little bit. That specific remedy for the worldwide epidemic of depression is a gift called the blues. All pop music today-jazz, swing, be-bop, Elvis Presley, the Beatles, the Stones, rock and roll, hip hop and on and on- is derived from the blues.”
― A Man Without a Country
― A Man Without a Country
“What our contempt often hurls from us,
We wish it our again; the present pleasure,
By revolution lowering, does become
The opposite of itself”
― Antony and Cleopatra
We wish it our again; the present pleasure,
By revolution lowering, does become
The opposite of itself”
― Antony and Cleopatra
“Now that I've won a slam, I know something very few people on earth are permitted to know. A win doesn't feel as good as a loss feels bad, and the good feeling doesn't last long as the bad. Not even close.”
― Open
― Open
“You've seen him, I know. He's the guy who stands there, or sits in a scene, and never says anything. If you need five tough guys to sit in a car waiting to blast somebody coming out of a building, he's one of the five guys in the car. If some criminals are waiting to be tried by a judge in a courtroom scene, he's waiting to be tried and he always looks guilty. He stands by elevators, he eats lunch in restaurants. In westerns, he is the guy at the end of the bar drinking rye. Once in a while he carries the rope at a lynching.”
― The Woman Chaser
― The Woman Chaser
“Self-destructing – in rock, in public, in fact anywhere – is not good for the human spirit, not to mention the lungs, liver and kidneys. Artistically, it’s best approached the way David Bowie did it in the mid-1970s. His cocaine addiction turned him into a withered stick-insect figure of a man but also inspired the best music of his entire career. Then he sorted himself out and became the golden-haired survivor we know and love today.”
― The Dark Stuff: Selected Writings on Rock Music 1972-1993
― The Dark Stuff: Selected Writings on Rock Music 1972-1993
The Readers Review: Literature from 1714 to 1910
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This is a group for discerning readers looking to discover, explore, and critically discuss some of the World’s literature, with a primary emphasis on ...more
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— last activity May 04, 2026 11:19AM
Welcome to our group! We are a friendly group whose goal is to read through Boxall’s list of 1001 books. Many of us were together as a group over at S ...more
Raunaq’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Raunaq’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
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