Ryan Holdbrook

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


The Decent Proposal
Ryan Holdbrook is currently reading
by Kemper Donovan (Goodreads Author)
bookshelves: currently-reading
Rate this book
Clear rating

 
Sorry Please Than...
Ryan Holdbrook is currently reading
by Charles Yu (Goodreads Author)
Rate this book
Clear rating

 
Loading...
Paul Neilan
“I think our generation has been called to apathy just as our grandparents were called to defeat fascism and the baby boomers were called to get divorced and fuck around for most of their adult lives before bankrupting the entire goddamn country when they retire. But we have the chance to do something really special here. Imagine a world where people didn’t care enough to go to war over anything. Where some guy gets up in the morning and says, “I know God wants me to kill the infidels and keep gay people from marrying each other, but I just don’t give a shit. I’m going back to bed.” It would be paradise on earth. This is our mission. I think we can make it happen, but I really don’t care either way. And that’s called hope.”
Paul Neilan

Søren Kierkegaard
“What is a poet? An unhappy man who hides deep anguish in his heart, but whose lips are so formed that when the sigh and cry pass through them, it sounds like lovely music.... And people flock around the poet and say: 'Sing again soon' - that is, 'May new sufferings torment your soul but your lips be fashioned as before, for the cry would only frighten us, but the music, that is blissful.”
Soren Kierkegaard, Either - Or

David  Mitchell
“Folks with most to complain about seldom complain most.”
David Mitchell, Ghostwritten

David  Mitchell
“Integrity is a bugger, it really is. Lying can get you into difficulties, but to really wind up in the crappers try telling nothing but the truth.”
David Mitchell, Ghostwritten

David  Mitchell
“How about this? Hong Kong had been appropriated by British drug pushers in the 1840s. We wanted Chinese silk, porcelain, and spices. The Chinese didn't want our clothes, tools, or salted herring, and who can blame them? They had no demand. Our solution was to make a demand, by getting large sections of the populace addicted to opium, a drug which the Chinese government had outlawed. When the Chinese understandably objected to this arrangement, we kicked the fuck out of them, set up a puppet government in Peking that hung signs on parks saying NO DOGS OR CHINESE, and occupied this corner of their country as an import base. Fucking godawful behavior, when you think about it. And we accuse them of xenophobia. It would be like the Colombians invading Washington in the early twenty-first century and forcing the White House to legalize heroin. And saying, "Don't worry, we'll show ourselves out, and take Florida while we're at it, okay? Thanks very much.”
David Mitchell, Ghostwritten

year in books
Chantal
2,500 books | 77 friends

Liz Bra...
1,316 books | 140 friends

Joel
1,371 books | 531 friends

Linda H...
7 books | 8 friends

Ryan Br...
319 books | 225 friends

Dave Da...
1 book | 66 friends

Ruth Binns
253 books | 29 friends

Sebasti...
8 books | 18 friends

More friends…


Polls voted on by Ryan

Lists liked by Ryan