Can I be bothered to read The Haunting of Hill House for a THIRD time?

Just finished a shop event for which we were underprepared. Went OK in the end. Got away with it. Relief of Mafeking

Just finished "Discord" amid the hubbub of a pub bingo session. I haven't heard bingo called properly in years. Really funny. How does Jeremy Cooper do it? And what even IS IT that he does? I immediately gave my ARC to a shop customer at a nearby table.

Pope's favourite film... Weekend at Bernini's.

▫️ curb stones after the rain ▫️

"Life is Beautiful" is one of those movies where the critics say you're supposed to experience some deep transcendent meaning and if you don't you're shallow and unperceptive, but in true fact the movie is a disaster. The script version of "the Emperor has No Clothes."

I don't care if you are the Pope. Life is Beautiful is one of the worst films in the universe.

Me to a young person today: "When, as I just heard them do, somebody tells you they have killed 37 people in close combat, they are expressing regret for years spent in a desk job". Last time I saw that bloke, he was claiming 20 victims. He's fatter and slower than me, and I have a kill count of 5.

We have a customer who was hugely right radicalised during lockdowns. Saw him today for the first time in years. We had a nice conversation! Nature is NOT healing. I just got lucky that one time. Give me some credit for intelligence.

Today is Duodi the 22nd of Brumaire in the year 234. Brumaire is the month of mist. Today we celebrate azarole.#JacobinDay More information on azarole

For the first time since 1981 I am listening to Mose Allison "Middle-Class White Boy". Fantastic record, my dad played it to death. Yes: I am now older than my dad was when he bought it

Anybody seen my old snow?

Christ. Here they all come, right-on queue

Best author photo of all time

I get this beaucoup

It’s the old fiction/nonfiction nonfiction/fiction axis.

Where one relaxes on the axis of the wheel of life

Wonderful BBC archive clip about black magic in Norfolk in 1964 - soot-blackened sheep’s hearts, weird effigies, and isolated fenland villages. www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWTw...

If I were a doctor with a massive house, I would definitely name it Bedside Manor

Yes! He is up to something

Overheard: "I have lost my creativity. If I won the lottery tomorrow, I would stay at home and play on my phone."

Entrei numa biblioteca Saí correndo cinco minutos depois porque era capaz de eu nunca mais sair Não me leve a uma biblioteca se não puder me largar lá pro resto da vida

What an extraordinary book. Haunted by death. A book about a collaborative art project, and thus a book about how little we know of the other person. Very sad, but compelling. Thumbs up.

A radio programme like the Shipping Forecast but it’s called Bin Day and it just reads out every single council in the country’s bin schedule

Marcel Productivity

it’s also funny bc the whole point of blinkist is that it gives you an AI summary of some stupid fucking productivity book and then you pretend you read the book. which you didn’t

And so he won! David Szalay’s Flesh takes the Booker Prize 2025

I've had people tell me they used to go to these, and I've been so envious.

Having done it for decades, mixed in with voice notes, word docs, tweets, etc, I am increasingly drawn to reading and writing principally on paper *because* it is unsurveillable & unscrapeable (without brute intrusion, which is possible but less insidious).

@andrewmale.bsky.social hope this has made landfall with you.

I feel as though I should be dismissive but the fact is I absolutely love this guy. He's not let go of the magic

I want to meet this bloke. Not sure we'd get on, but we could definitely polish off one of those big beef meals which they only do for two people. Chateaubriand, I think that's what I mean.

Just what IS it about this dude

RIP Baudrillard you would have loved this shit

Not here to be disappointed. Not here to be concerned. Here to replace them - and then take on Reform. Join.greenparty.org.uk

Trevor, sort your fucking tie out. Wind it in. Pillock

NFL crowd boos Trump after he appeared on the giant stadium screen

Just had a run-in with cleaning robot

Trump just got massively booed and flipped off by the crowd at the Commanders game. (Video: Marisa Schultz)

"I... and say your name..."

"I... and say your name..." is truly the calling card of an utterly lost individual.

I, then say your name. Chuck this fucker in the bin. Loser.

Trump getting booed at the Commanders game

There‘s only one person who can be Director General of the BBC

Today is Décadi the 20th of Brumaire in the year 234. Brumaire is the month of mist. Today we celebrate the harrow.#JacobinDay More information on the harrow

Zohran says: it’s my way or the Guermantes way

The irony meter just broke. The BBC isn't perfect, but it's one of the few things standing between our British values and a Trump-style takeover of our politics.

I learned Roman numerals from TV credits.

Depressing day. I’m off to bed with John Updike. Which doesn’t exactly make me unique apparently.

There goes journalism