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Journeys in Dream...
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Footnotes in Gaza
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The Yellow House
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See all 14 books that Derek is reading…
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Friedrich Nietzsche
“And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music.”
Friedrich Nietzsche

Neil Gaiman
“I believe that mankind's destiny lies in the stars. I believe that candy really did taste better when I was a kid, that it's aerodynamically impossible for a bumble bee to fly, that light is a wave and a particle, that there's a cat in a box somewhere who's alive and dead at the same time (although if they don't ever open the box to feed it it'll eventually just be two different kinds of dead), and that there are stars in the universe billions of years older than the universe itself.”
Neil Gaiman

James Baldwin
“Life is tragic simply because the earth turns and the sun inexorably rises and sets, and one day, for each of us, the sun will go down for the last, last time. Perhaps the whole root of our trouble, the human trouble, is that we will sacrifice all the beauty of our lives, will imprison ourselves in totems, taboos, crosses, blood sacrifices, steeples, mosques, races, armies, flags, nations, in order to deny the fact of death, the only fact we have. It seems to me that one ought to rejoice in the fact of death--ought to decide, indeed, to earn one's death by confronting with passion the conundrum of life. One is responsible for life: It is the small beacon in that terrifying darkness from which we come and to which we shall return.”
James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time

Anaïs Nin
“We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are.”
Anaïs Nin

Martin Amis
“What did Nabokov and Joyce have in common, apart from the poor teeth and the great prose? Exile, and decades of near pauperism. A compulsive tendency to overtip. An uxoriousness that their wives deservedly inspired. More than that, they both lived their lives 'beautifully'--not in any Jamesian sense (where, besides, ferocious solvency would have been a prerequisite), but in the droll fortitude of their perseverance. They got the work done, with style.”
Martin Amis, Experience

116231 International Reads — 586 members — last activity Aug 31, 2019 08:44PM
This book club's focus is on reading as diversely as possible. We hope to read books we may not otherwise have read or even heard of! This book club ...more
79477 Women and Men — 234 members — last activity Jul 07, 2026 11:24PM
Women and Men began as a reading group for Joseph McElroy's masterpiece. It has developed into All Things McElroy. We have chapter threads for discuss ...more
59349 Reading the Classics — 4035 members — last activity May 10, 2025 07:28AM
This is a group for people who want to read the classics and discuss them as a group. Each month we will choose as a group a book to read. Everyone is ...more
233 ¡ POETRY ! — 22498 members — last activity Aug 31, 2026 04:34PM
No pretensions: just poetry. Stop by, recommend books, offer up poems (excerpted), tempt us, taunt us, tell us what to read and where to go (to read ...more
35402 Loosed in Translation — 534 members — last activity Sep 07, 2026 06:22AM
Are you interested in world literature, and works in translation? Come here for recommendations, resources, links, advice on who the best translator o ...more
More of Derek’s groups…
year in books
Bárbara
5,119 books | 275 friends

Peter
2,109 books | 134 friends

Lisa
2,910 books | 189 friends

Mercedes
1,746 books | 5,684 friends

Elli (T...
1,226 books | 672 friends

Bree
770 books | 233 friends

Rose
3,407 books | 70 friends

Lyndsay
1,714 books | 1,058 friends

More friends…
Rapture by Susan  MitchellNeon Vernacular by Yusef KomunyakaaSplit Horizon by Thomas LuxRough Music by Deborah DiggesSpring Comes To Chicago by Campbell McGrath
Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award
21 books — 2 voters
Ulysses by James Joyce
The Shandian Spawn
169 books — 49 voters

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