Bought the 1976 book by Reginald Hill on our Saturday autumn leaves viewing excursion we planned with a bookshop/resto destination. Food was great, book interesting. Monday, my better half brought home Banville's Venetian Vespers (library 7 day express.) Cover art serendipity. Mr Hill as harbinger?!

I didn't predict them tearing down the White House wing. I should have guessed though. Insanity calamity.

THIS. THIS. This is what we've been waiting for. A candidate who is talking abut the specifics of Queer history in NYC and advocating a plan to immediately protect trans persons. THIS IS HOW YOU DO IT.

A librarian fired by county officials in Campbell County, Wyoming, for refusing to remove LGBTQ books from shelves got the last laugh with a $700,000 settlement.

For those of who have already entered the strange and wonderful zone of László Krasznahorkai’s fiction, the news that he won this year’s Nobel Prize for Literature comes as no great surprise. “It seems something straightforwardly just,” James Wood writes.

Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, is the distant cause of everything from Amazon to A.I. slop. In the era of misinformation, addictive algorithms, and extractive monopolies, he thinks he can save the online world.

Zelenskyy says Ukraine can help Europe counter Russian drone incursions

*The out-the-window contingent *It's faster than the novichok or the polonium tea, let's be fair here www.themoscowtimes.com/2025/09/25/d...

122 passed. Once more I suggest it may soon be necessary to organize an 'underground railway' for trans persons to get to safer states and towns. Just openly driving or flying there might eventually be too dangerous as anti-trans states and feds may collect names and photos.

“There’s a strange closeness you feel when reading (Osamu) Dazai, as if you know him, as a friend,” says "Retrograde" translator Leo Elizabeth Takada.

Kiran Desai: ‘I never thought it would happen in the US’ www.theguardian.com/books/2025/s...

Looking forward to reading Frigyes Karinthy's 1939 autobiographical novel "A Journey Round My Skull" (New York Review Book) concerning his brain tumor and operation in 1936. Photo of the author at left, with his second wife the psychiatrist Aranka Bohm.

Paul Slovak on Pascal Covici, the editor who nurtured John Steinbeck, James Joyce and more.

“I’m also glad to see such an excellent choice by the Library of Congress, which has recently been a target of Trump and his hogmen—I was afraid this year’s Laureate would be someone like Kid Rock.” lithub.com/arthur-sze-i...

“Patrick Modiano…is a sleuth of the ordinary, a fisherman reeling in old socks and coins from the ocean floor.” —Ruth Margalit

"Reading a Murakami novel can feel like setting out on a lonely journey through the deepest recesses of the human heart." fivebooks.com/best-books/t...

"The Vienna Circle was a group of philosophers, all of whom had mathematical and scientific training, who began to meet in 1924; their discussion group continued for a dozen or so years." fivebooks.com/best-books/v...

❤️ Great piece on the Larry McMurtry Literary Center in Archer City this morning on NPR. Definitely worth a trip if you haven't visited yet. #larrymcmurtry #archercity #lmlc

Simple Saturday pleasures of thrifting for a total of $3.25 (Can), have brought a Sunday morning measured out in daydreams of southwest Ireland, Scottish highlands, Sir Walter Scott's Abbotsford, Edinburgh, old libraries, and trying out a Gibson 175.

Seemingly insignificant synchronicities cropping up of late. Going thru boxes of books, a Kiran Desai novel I reviewed in 2007 appeared. Looking her up, I see she has a novel coming out this fall, 19 yes since her 2nd book. chumleyandpepys.blogspot.com/2007/12/h-is-for-hullabaloo-or-out-on-limb.html

Bessie Coleman (1892 – 1926) pioneering aviator. As US flying schools denied entry to her as a Black woman, she taught herself French and moved to France earning her license there. She specialised as a stunt pilot. #womensart

Revisiting some old magazine interviews with Earl Klugh and George Benson. Interesting story of how Klugh's youthful unique talent was recognized by Benson and he was invited to be a part of George Benson's band. Two very successful talents. #georgebenson #earlklugh #jazzguitarist #jazz #smoothjazz

Although this is not our *preferred* way for authors to submit their books, it does give a charming glimpse of the city of Oxford and many Bodleian sites. From around 3 minutes in: www.youtube.com/watch?v=q433... (featuring the Rad Cam, the Divinity School Proscholium, and Old Schools Quad).

The reporter who asked Putin if he would stop killing civilians in Ukraine has been identified. It was ABC News reporter Rachel Scott — brave enough to ask the question millions of Ukrainians and people worldwide are waiting for. This is what journalism looks like. 💙💛

waiting for something good to happen

Coffee Rings and Wittgenstein seem to be a thing. Judgemental readers? Careless bon vivants? Perhaps emblems of the Ouroboros Society? Or, more likely, merely perplexed caffeinated undergrads in philosophical despair? (Sting's wonderful Soul Cages as the soundtrack?)

It's been a long time since I read R. K. Narayan. First came across his novels at a Montreal library in the '70s. Just the author to fit the shift in my present reading mood. #rknarayan #malgudi

Let's pour one out for Dr. Mary Gaillard. Explore this gift article from The New York Times. You can read it for free without a subscription. www.nytimes.com/2025/07/31/s...

Penguin Books 90th birthday. How to chose from so many? Thought of posting two covers by the artist and author Virgil Burnett who I came to know.

Going thru boxes of cassettes I haven't listened to for 25 years. When I first heard Oryema on the radio in 1990, I had to have his music. I listened to it and others on my Walkman while working a night job, after working in a library during the day, and evening Univ. courses. Amazing to hear again.

‘Richard de Bury, an English bibliophile who knew the Sorbonne collection well, warned librarians to keep students away from their books, since they ate cheese while they read and dribbled fragments onto the page.’ Anthony Grafton on early modern libraries: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

‘By the time she returned to England and caught the eye of a king, she was both an astute scholar and a purveyor of beauty. It is no wonder, then, that Anne’s books reflect her own duality.’ Kate McCaffrey on the history of decorated books. faber.co.uk/journal/essay-a-history-of-the-sprayed-edge/

The artwork of Giorgio de Chirico seems to be a popular choice for book covers. His metaphysical art and their titles fit nicely with literature and philosophy, titles such as "The Disquieting Muses," "The Philosopher's Conquest," and "The Enigma of Arrival." I believe I have more, but not at hand.

English/French born miniaturist painter Esther Inglis, Self Portrait, 1595 artist who composed 60 miniature books using her calligraphic skill with paintings, portraits, and embroidered covers #womensart

Thrifted Sharpe's Eagle by Bernard Cornwell. Seems like a sign to begin the series: just 24 volumes of great storytelling (and a new one out this fall!) I may be some time. I've had the C. S. Forester novel for thirty years. A good read. A 1932 precursor to Sharpe. My old copy is a later printing.

Len! crimereads.com/len-deighton...

On July 13, 1953, future Oscar winner Alec Guinness spoke the first words of the first play performed at the Stratford Festival. "Now is the winter of our discontent, made glorious summer by this son of York." This is its story of how the Stratford Festival began. 🧵 1/15

Thrifted this 1985 Power Station single today. Palmer and Tony Thompson left the world way too early. Video was cutting edge with transgender model Caroline Cossey, and Palmer being the "hot" priest long before Andrew Scott. Still a foot tapper of a song.

I don't know if Yasunari Kawabata, born on this day in 1899, is much read today. With so much Japanese literature produced over the last fifty years, perhaps more studied in schools than read. (English translation paperback editions of Snow Country 1964, 1968, 1996.)

Neuromancer. open.substack.com/pub/gregolea...

Because Trump works, quite literally, for Putin. His occasional "come to nothing" disagreements with Putin are put on for appearances.

Ivan Doroschuk of Men Without Hats has a new hit song coming your way. youtu.be/gV6SF492hNU?...

International Tea Day? This old tv commercial for Red Rose Tea set in a fictional town seems rather, timely. Pity. youtu.be/9UZHgTQaXLI?...

The coffee ring, or culaccino, or buffering image, or faint motif of an ouroboros on the dustwrapper of my copy of Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations is a pleasurable resonant imprint caught in the snares of language. I like it. Ludwig W born on this date, 1889.

World Quantum Day 4.14 based on Planck's constant. Nice honour for Max Planck. Interesting to know that at age ten, Max adapted his given names: Karl Ernst Ludwig Marx, by dropping the R in Marx and using Max for the rest of his illustrious life. (We eat Pie on Pi day. What to eat on Quantum Day?)

Like clockwork, every spring, when the lawns begin to thaw, and cardinals seek out nesting sites, I feel the urge to listen to flamenco guitarists and read a bit of Spanish. It's uncanny. I rarely listen to Vicente Amigo and the others during the rest of the year. Wanderlust perhaps, a la Quixote.

"This Trump administration started as a screwball calamity. God knows how it will end. Doesn't look good." - Message found in a bottle, 2052.