Discover new books on Goodreads
Meet your next favorite book
“To be the object of desire is to be defined in the passive case.
To exist in the passive case is to die in the passive case – that is, to be killed.
This is the moral of the fairy tale about the perfect woman.”
― The Sadeian Woman: And the Ideology of Pornography
To exist in the passive case is to die in the passive case – that is, to be killed.
This is the moral of the fairy tale about the perfect woman.”
― The Sadeian Woman: And the Ideology of Pornography
“There is something at work in my soul, which I do not understand.”
― Frankenstein
― Frankenstein
“They told of dripping stone walls in uninhabited castles and of ivy-clad monastery ruins by moonlight, of locked inner rooms and secret dungeons, dank charnel houses and overgrown graveyards, of footsteps creaking upon staircases and fingers tapping at casements, of howlings and shriekings, groanings and scuttlings and the clanking of chains, of hooded monks and headless horseman, swirling mists and sudden winds, insubstantial specters and sheeted creatures, vampires and bloodhounds, bats and rats and spiders, of men found at dawn and women turned white-haired and raving lunatic, and of vanished corpses and curses upon heirs.”
―
―
“Monarchy is like a splendid ship, with all sails set it moves majestically on, but then it hits a rock and sinks for ever. Democracy is like a raft. It never sinks but, damn it, your feet are always in the water. That is a good metaphor, for raft, he implies, is simply swept along by the tide or the current; one can with a paddle or a plank steer a little to stay afloat, trim forward direction slightly to left or right, perhaps even slow down or speed up a little, but there is no turning back against the current of democracy.”
― Democracy: A Very Short Introduction
― Democracy: A Very Short Introduction
“If women allow themselves to be consoled for their culturally determined lack of access to the modes of intellectual debate by the invocation of hypothetical great goddesses, they are simply flattering themselves into submission (a technique often used on them by men). All the mythic versions of women, from the myth of the redeeming purity of the virgin to that of the healing, reconciliatory mother, are consolatory nonsenses; and consolatory nonsense seems to me a fair definition of myth, anyway. Mother goddesses are just as silly a notion as father gods. If a revival of the myths gives women emotional satisfaction, it does so at the price of obscuring the real conditions of life. This is why they were invented in the first place.”
― The Sadeian Woman: And the Ideology of Pornography
― The Sadeian Woman: And the Ideology of Pornography
Harry’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Harry’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
207 books
|
9 friends
245 books
|
20 friends
197 books
|
6 friends
13 books
|
21 friends
8 books
|
5 friends
32 books
|
26 friends
1 book
|
2 friends
156 books
|
7 friends
More friends…
Favorite Genres
Biography, Business, Classics, Contemporary, Crime, Ebooks, Fiction, History, Humor and Comedy, Memoir, Mystery, Non-fiction, Philosophy, Poetry, Psychology, Science, Self help, Suspense, Spirituality, Sports, Thriller, and Travel
Polls voted on by Harry
Lists liked by Harry