36 books
—
22 voters
to-read
(1245)
currently-reading (1)
read (645)
sf-fantasy (258)
short_stories (81)
comics-graphic-stuff (77)
2009 (57)
2012 (55)
2010 (49)
2011 (48)
2014 (48)
horror-dark-fantasy (47)
currently-reading (1)
read (645)
sf-fantasy (258)
short_stories (81)
comics-graphic-stuff (77)
2009 (57)
2012 (55)
2010 (49)
2011 (48)
2014 (48)
horror-dark-fantasy (47)
mystery-detective
(46)
2015 (39)
2013 (32)
crime (30)
historical-fiction (29)
2016 (28)
italians (28)
indonesia (22)
nyc (21)
2018 (20)
audiobooks (20)
japan (20)
2015 (39)
2013 (32)
crime (30)
historical-fiction (29)
2016 (28)
italians (28)
indonesia (22)
nyc (21)
2018 (20)
audiobooks (20)
japan (20)
“No intellect is needed to see those figures who wait beyond the void of death – every child is aware of them, blazing with glories dark or bright, wrapped in authority older than the universe. They are the stuff of our earliest dreams, as of our dying visions. Rightly we feel our lives guided by them, and rightly too we feel how little we matter to them, the builders of the unimaginable, the fighters of wars beyond the totality of existence.
The difficulty lies in learning that we ourselves encompass forces equally great. We say, “I will,” and “I will not,” and imagine ourselves (though we obey the orders of some prosaic person every day) our own masters, when the truth is that our masters are sleeping. One wakes within us and we are ridden like beasts, though the rider is but some hitherto unguessed part of ourselves.”
― Shadow & Claw
The difficulty lies in learning that we ourselves encompass forces equally great. We say, “I will,” and “I will not,” and imagine ourselves (though we obey the orders of some prosaic person every day) our own masters, when the truth is that our masters are sleeping. One wakes within us and we are ridden like beasts, though the rider is but some hitherto unguessed part of ourselves.”
― Shadow & Claw
“There are things than cannot ever occur with any precision. They are too big and too magnificent to be contained in mere facts. They are merely trying to occur, they are checking whether the ground of reality can carry them. And they quickly withdraw, fearing to loose their integrity in the frailty of realization.”
― Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass
― Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass
“Society is helpless without its champion," said Dr. Johns. "The more it itself employs its own will toward order, the more it is removed from the soil in which it roots; its freedom of will becomes a source of transgression against its deep-rooted instincts. In its dilemma it needs a crucifixion, someone to die in the name of chaos, a sacrifice of atonement to protect it against the primitive powers that threaten to falsify its order.”
― One for the devil;
― One for the devil;
“And taking her friend’s hand, she put it on her breast, on that firm round covering of a woman’s heart which the male often finds so satisfying that he makes no attempt to find what lies beneath it.”
―
―
“… for overstrong was the command to hold fast to each smallest particle of time, to the smallest particle of every circumstance, and to embody all of them in memory as if they could be preserved in memory through all deaths for all times.”
― The Death of Virgil
― The Death of Virgil
John’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at John’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
More friends…
Polls voted on by John
Lists liked by John



























































