Harold Smithson

Add friend
Sign in to Goodreads to learn more about Harold.


Loading...
Klaus Kinski
“I don't need anybody to tell me how to be alive.”
Klaus Kinski

Roger Ebert
“I believe that if, at the end of it all, according to our abilities, we have done something to make others a little happier, and something to make ourselves a little happier, that is about the best we can do. To make others less happy is a crime. To make ourselves unhappy is where all crime starts. We must try to contribute joy to the world. That is true no matter what our problems, our health, our circumstances. We must try.”
Roger Ebert

George S. Patton Jr.
“If everybody is thinking alike, then somebody isn't thinking.”
George S. Patton

Robert Cormier
“They don't actually want you to do your own thing, not unless it's their thing too.”
Robert Cormier, The Chocolate War
tags: truth

David Foster Wallace
“Interviewer ...In the case of "American Psycho" I felt there was something more than just this desire to inflict pain--or that Ellis was being cruel the way you said serious artists need to be willing to be.

DFW: You're just displaying the sort of cynicism that lets readers be manipulated by bad writing. I think it's a kind of black cynicism about today's world that Ellis and certain others depend on for their readership. Look, if the contemporary condition is hopelessly shitty, insipid, materialistic, emotionally retarded, sadomasochistic, and stupid, then I (or any writer) can get away with slapping together stories with characters who are stupid, vapid, emotionally retarded, which is easy, because these sorts of characters require no development. With descriptions that are simply lists of brand-name consumer products. Where stupid people say insipid stuff to each other. If what's always distinguished bad writing -- flat characters, a narrative world that's cliched and not recognizably human, etc. -- is also a description of today's world, then bad writing becomes an ingenious mimesis of a bad world. If readers simply believe the world is stupid and shallow and mean, then Ellis can write a mean shallow stupid novel that becomes a mordant deadpan commentary on the badness of everything. Look man, we'd probably most of us agree that these are dark times, and stupid ones, but do we need fiction that does nothing but dramatize how dark and stupid everything is? In dark times, the definition of good art would seem to be art that locates and applies CPR to those elements of what's human and magical that still live and glow despite the times' darkness. Really good fiction could have as dark a worldview as it wished, but it'd find a way both to depict this world and to illuminate the possibilities for being alive and human in it. You can defend "Psycho" as being a sort of performative digest of late-eighties social problems, but it's no more than that.”
David Foster Wallace

1112 Young Adult Fiction for Adults — 11193 members — last activity May 26, 2026 02:09AM
Whatever your age is, if you love reading young adult fiction, then I want to know what you are reading! Let's exchange ideas of good reads, nice idea ...more
32418 YA and Beyond — 2764 members — last activity Aug 20, 2022 02:30PM
All are welcome from young and old to discuss books they love to read from different genres, especially YA!
70863 David Estes Fans and YA Book Lovers Unite! — 2919 members — last activity 9 hours, 24 min ago
A Group for all things YA and David Estes
78213 Reviews for the Literary Inclined — 297 members — last activity Nov 02, 2022 12:43PM
This group is for reviews on books, series, characters, authors, theme, etc of any genre. Within this group nobody is right or wrong so feel free to ...more
93710 Goodreads Debate Club — 5 members — last activity Feb 28, 2013 12:42AM
For all of your debating needs.
More of Harold’s groups…
year in books
Karen’s...
2,604 books | 1,660 friends

Gwennie
1,672 books | 952 friends

Jenny
7,446 books | 1,963 friends

Lasse
2,054 books | 67 friends

Lorn
351 books | 74 friends

Layton
2,206 books | 493 friends

Jennifer
1,641 books | 63 friends

Tish
3,248 books | 65 friends

More friends…
Last Night I Sang to the Monster by Benjamin Alire SáenzCage of Stars by Jacquelyn MitchardThe Girl Who Chased the Moon by Sarah Addison AllenMemoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac by Gabrielle ZevinThe Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby
Best Book Titles
12,186 books — 8,611 voters
And Then There Were None by Agatha ChristieMisery by Stephen  KingThe Skinjacker Trilogy by Neal ShustermanScott Pilgrim's Finest Hour by Bryan Lee O'MalleyThe Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness
Most Unique Villains
63 books — 37 voters

More…



Polls voted on by Harold

Lists liked by Harold