563 books
—
2,451 voters
read
(947)
currently-reading (5)
to-read (14)
light-fiction (54)
français (20)
literature (16)
favorites (13)
currently-reading (5)
to-read (14)
light-fiction (54)
français (20)
literature (16)
favorites (13)
philosophy
(8)
politics (7)
dansk (6)
science (6)
español (5)
non-fiction (5)
science-fiction (4)
politics (7)
dansk (6)
science (6)
español (5)
non-fiction (5)
science-fiction (4)


“The so-called ‘psychotically depressed’ person who tries to kill herself doesn’t do so out of quote ‘hopelessness’ or any abstract conviction that life’s assets and debits do not square. And surely not because death seems suddenly appealing. The person in whom Its invisible agony reaches a certain unendurable level will kill herself the same way a trapped person will eventually jump from the window of a burning high-rise. Make no mistake about people who leap from burning windows. Their terror of falling from a great height is still just as great as it would be for you or me standing speculatively at the same window just checking out the view; i.e. the fear of falling remains a constant. The variable here is the other terror, the fire’s flames: when the flames get close enough, falling to death becomes the slightly less terrible of two terrors. It’s not desiring the fall; it’s terror of the flames. And yet nobody down on the sidewalk, looking up and yelling ‘Don’t!’ and ‘Hang on!’, can understand the jump. Not really. You’d have to have personally been trapped and felt flames to really understand a terror way beyond falling.”
―
―

“Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the Western Spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun. Orbiting this at a distance of roughly ninety-eight million miles is an utterly insignificant little blue-green planet whose ape-descended life forms are so amazingly primitive that they still think digital watches are a pretty neat idea...
This planet has - or rather had - a problem, which was this: most of the people living on it were unhappy for pretty much of the time. Many solutions were suggested for this problem, but most of these were largely concerned with the movement of small green pieces of paper, which was odd because on the whole it wasn't the small green pieces of paper that were unhappy.
And so the problem remained; lots of people were mean, and most of them were miserable, even the ones with digital watches.”
― The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
This planet has - or rather had - a problem, which was this: most of the people living on it were unhappy for pretty much of the time. Many solutions were suggested for this problem, but most of these were largely concerned with the movement of small green pieces of paper, which was odd because on the whole it wasn't the small green pieces of paper that were unhappy.
And so the problem remained; lots of people were mean, and most of them were miserable, even the ones with digital watches.”
― The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

This group is for word lovers and has topics both serious (grammatical questions and concerns) and not so serious (word play and word games of all sor ...more

A group to play scrabble/anagrams online. “Remember, when you don’t know what to do, it never hurts to play Scrabble. It’s like reading the I Ching o ...more

Do you enjoy keeping up with politics? Are you interested in current events and contemporary history? Do you consider yourself leftist, liberal, socia ...more

Relax in the lounge while discussing your favorite literature (classics, contemporary bestsellers and more). Come ponder and share your perspectives o ...more

NOTE: This group is intermittently active, but you are welcome to revive past discussions if you're currently reading any of those books. We read ch ...more
Mark’s 2022 Year in Books
Take a look at Mark’s Year in Books. The good, the bad, the long, the short—it’s all here.
More friends…
Polls voted on by Mark
Lists liked by Mark