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William2
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currently-reading (1)
to-read (713)
20-ce (1281)
fiction (1040)
us (743)
translation (526)
uk (499)
nonfiction (438)
21-ce (386)
history (199)
poetry (145)
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(130)
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memoir (106)
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criticism (101)
short-stories (97)
do-not-own (89)
italy (84)
russia (82)
signed (82)
war (81)
france (73)
japan (73)
![Loading... Loading...](https://cdn.statically.io/img/s.gr-assets.com/assets/loading_big-5baaead7062b26142a19d19a9bccf5c2.gif)
![Vasily Grossman](https://cdn.statically.io/img/i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/authors/1655633035i/19595._UY200_CR25,0,200,200_.jpg)
“...neither fate, nor history, nor the anger of the State, nor the glory or infamy of battle has any power to affect those who call themselves human beings. No, whatever life holds in store --- hard-won glory, poverty and despair, or death in a labor camp --- they will live as human beings and die as human beings, the same as those who have already perished; and in this alone lies man's eternal and bitter victory over all the grandiose and inhuman forces that ever have been or will be...”
― Life and Fate
― Life and Fate
![Cynthia Ozick](https://cdn.statically.io/img/i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/authors/1255219148i/43530.jpg)
“The novella will be called, I think, “The Messiah of Stockholm.” It takes place in Stockholm. I’d better say no more, or the Muse will wipe it out.”
― The Messiah of Stockholm
― The Messiah of Stockholm
![Barbara W. Tuchman](https://cdn.statically.io/img/i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/authors/1229046503i/137261.jpg)
“In individuals as in nations, contentment is silent, which tends to unbalance the historical record.”
― A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century
― A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century
![Jorge Luis Borges](https://cdn.statically.io/img/i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/authors/1652029755i/500._UX200_CR0,0,200,200_.jpg)
“A writer, or any man, must believe that whatever happens to him is an instrument; everything has been given for an end. This is even stronger in the case of the artist. Everything that happens, including humiliations, embarrassments, misfortunes, all has been given like clay, like material for one’s art. One must accept it. For this reason I speak in a poem of the ancient food of heroes: humiliation, unhappiness, discord. Those things are given to us to transform, so that we may make from the miserable circumstances of our lives things that are eternal, or aspire to be so.”
― Selected Non-Fictions
― Selected Non-Fictions
![Jonathan Swift](https://cdn.statically.io/img/i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/authors/1183238507i/1831.jpg)
“Whatever reader desires to have a thorough comprehension of an author's thoughts cannot take a better method than by putting himself into the circumstances and postures of life that the author was in upon every important passage as it flowed from his pen; for this will introduce a parity and strict correspondence of ideas between the reader and the author. Now, to assist the diligent reader in so delicate an affair, as far as brevity will permit, I have recollected that the shrewdest pieces of this treatise were conceived in bed in a garret; at other times (for a reason best known to myself) I thought fit to sharpen my invention with hunger; and in general, the whole work was begun, continued, and ended under a long course of physic and great want of money.”
― A Tale of a Tub
― A Tale of a Tub
![100590](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images.gr-assets.com/groups/1373429226p1/100590.jpg)
Members of Kindred Spirits and other interested GR members read the works of Thomas Mann. Our next scheduled read is The Magic Mountain, taking plac ...more
![1016](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images.gr-assets.com/groups/1189785551p1/1016.jpg)
This is a group for all the fans of Dystopias out there. Share your favorite dystopias, get new recommendations, and talk with other fans about this e ...more
![74458](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images.gr-assets.com/groups/1343320565p1/74458.jpg)
A group to gather and discuss, question, comment, interpret, review etc. Drinking of actual Margaritas while reading and/or discussing strongly encour ...more
![18702](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images.gr-assets.com/groups/1242389037p1/18702.jpg)
A group in honour of the late Jim Ballard, who pulled science fiction out of the adolescent male ghetto and gave us books full of beauty, excitement, ...more
![153801](https://cdn.statically.io/img/images.gr-assets.com/groups/1420394890p1/153801.jpg)
A group for all things related to the life and work of this criminally neglected Modernist genius who died alone, forgotten and poverty-stricken, in 1 ...more
William2’s 2023 Year in Books
Take a look at William2’s Year in Books. The good, the bad, the long, the short—it’s all here.
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