books

There exist only two kinds of modern mathematics books: ones which you cannot read beyond the first page and ones which you cannot read beyond the first sentence.

The art of not reading is a very important one. It consists in not taking an interest in whatever may be engaging the attention of general public at any particular time. When some political or ecclesiastical pamphlet, or novel, or poem is making a great commotion, you should remember that he who writes for fools always finds a large public. - A precondition for reading good books is not reading bad ones: for life is short.

It is fundamentally pointless and also a category error to rank books, works of art, or pieces of music. But it's fun all the same.

If you are a writer for a specific nation or a specific race, then fuck you.

I think that the point of the story is not really about how often Holden complains but what and how he complains.

To me a great companion to this story is The Great Gatsby. On the surface the characters are shallow and annoyingly coy with their intentions. They seem to have no point - hell their lives are pointless, soaked in apathy and liquor.

Underneath all that is fear. Fear of rejection, fear of the unknown, fear of failure, and fear of oneself. I always felt bad for Holden because underneath his tough and bitter facade is a child alone in a world that cares nothing for him.

On the Catcher in the Rye

U životu sve može da se desi, a naročito ništa.

Uelbek

“Anything can happen in life, especially nothing.”

When I get a little money I buy books; and if any is left I buy food and clothes.

Books on philosophy per se are either highly technical stuff that doesn’t matter much, or vague concatenations of abstractions their own authors didn’t fully understand (e.g. Hegel).

If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking.

Watts published a luminous book entitled The Wisdom of Insecurity that ought to be required reading for every high school senior.