People talk about this stuff in terms of how much it'll suck for gaming and I hate to inform you how many MRI machines, X-Rays, all sorts of other vital machinery are just a Windows IoT Edition PC in a beige plastic box with a big magnet/accelerator/whatever attached.

恭喜發財 Happy New Year for 2026!

I continue to admire Tom’s principled takes on his writing career👇

Morally indefensible position here from Instagram. These companies know that exactly what they’re doing and making their users produce and consume as much addictive content through their algorithms as possible for revenue.

No surprises there!

"Refusing is actually the more hopeful expansive vision of the future." We don't have to accept AI. We don't have to accept technology that is being created so that the powers that be can treat us inhumanely. The future is not settled.

“My book, and my work more broadly, are about things that cannot be remedied by a hike… Racism does not disappear because I write about the textures of the Perthshire hills… ‘Nature cure’ persists because it is marketable and reassuring. It offers a simple story in place of a difficult one.”

Agree for seating, but the problem is baggage in overhead lockers. If you’re in Economy, baggage is a free for all because somehow passengers manage to conjure up more than one piece… and your bag is suddenly taken by attendants to be put on a random locker a ten minute walk away from your seat.

“I find some of the theatrics a little odd. I wouldn’t have come up with giving a wrestling-style belt to the winner or asking players to walk down a glowing “hype tunnel”. But it seems to work: there’s more interest in [competitive Microsoft Excel] than ever.”

This is interesting, because while everything about it is absurdly disrespectful, it sets quite a high price on the training value of a novel (if you make a rough equivalence about work done) to use as a benchmark for (say) future litigation.

Yep. This is why pre-ordering, requesting from libraries or even just shelving the books youre interested in can be critical for an author, something I touch on in my latest blog post. wtalabi.wordpress.com/2026/01/29/p...

Couldn’t relate to this more. Without glasses I can’t read text unless it’s absolutely huge due to my astigmatism. And no, laser eye surgery doesn’t correct it nor does a high strength lens.

It is important to know that I wrote a whole trilogy of Knights vs UFO books, they are gorgeous, they are wonderful, and they are now also cheap. They open with a swordfight in the shadow of a dead god and arcane lightning. Juntas, iguana-folk, animist wizards... www.amazon.co.uk/Gauntlet-Fis...

Many thanks to @nigella.bsky.social for throwing in the actual pancake recipe I lost ages ago. Can’t wait to make them again!

The guy is a genius.

My favourite fact about Nickelback is the fact that ‘Rockstar’ was licensed to be in a now banned sofa advert for DFS. Incredibly, it wasn’t because the song, the band and the advert are terrible, but the Advertising Standards Authority noted the sofas were a third larger in the ad than real life.

A timely reminder for writers to push for no-ai clauses for editing or foreign translations.

This is inspired.

Love this ❤️❤️❤️

I happen to think @kristiedegaris.bsky.social is one of the most vital and relevant writers whose thoughts are challenging and refreshing in equal measure. Her book Drystone was one of my most important reads of 2025 and she continues to write brilliant essays. Worth a read👇

First read of 2026 – The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro. I began the book ages ago but for reasons didn’t get round to finishing, so I decided to start from the beginning. A unique exploration of the English class system and the notion of duty. Charming and disturbing in equal measure.

One of mine: not all first lines and pages have to be ‘hooky’ or ‘explosive’. My favourite books have nothing of the sort.

“In her many years of quiet devotion and in the dignity with which she endured so much, Giménez was a rare blaze of grace and humility in an ever-darker, ever-crueller world. That – and not Monkey Christ – was her life’s work and its legacy.”

Early on in my writing career at the very first writing thing I went to in order to learn the craft, a well known and respected author shat all over me. I very much wanted to give up but I’m glad I didn’t. Every day since has been a learning curve and I’m so pleased I have readers I trust now.

I totally used overmorrow in my new novel. Absolutely bringing this one back.

Wanna see real-life miracles? Fund scientific research. A team of US scientists just cured Alzheimer’s in mice — and there is now hope that the disease can be reversed in humans. futurism.com/health-medic...

As an aside, if you wanted this and other photographs like this in high resolution and in colour, I worked with Unsplash and the Library of Congress to make them available for the first time in colour, for free. 👇 unsplash.com/collections/...

“Bouvat-Merlin says he was drawn to Sauron by both the mission and an opportunity to solve a real customer problem.” I suppose dominion over all living things counts as a ‘customer problem’.

True Detective S1 is still the pinnacle of television for me, and I’m so pleased it introduced a new generation of readers to Robert W. Chambers’ seminal anthology, The King in Yellow.

“Evil Lemon” 🍋

The end of year history book review has arrived!👇

Management is looking for *any* excuse to compromise worker pay or conditions in the interest of convenience👇

I bloody loved Sinners when it came out but hearing director Ryan Coogler talk about the technical aspects of the shoot is simply incredible: knowledgeable, enthusiastic and completely devoid of ego. Worth a watch. youtu.be/78Ru62uFM0s?...

Over the last year I’ve come to the conclusion that creation and curation is an act of rebellion. Write. Paint. Draw. Make. There is no inevitability to the digital asbestos generated by these companies run by sociopaths if we quietly refuse to use their products.

A friend was telling me about the problems with booking a driving test in the UK — according to their experience, test spots as released by the DVSA are snapped up by scalpers who then sell on the appointments to desperate bidders. If true this certainly deserves more journalistic investigation, no?

Atkinson has an uncanny talent for making the most mundane scene comedy gold👇

“For every pound of emotional pressure you want your readers to feel, you must apply five hundred pounds on your side of the page. That's just physics.” —Elizabeth McCracken, A Long Game

And now I find out that The Salt Path wasn't even published by a real penguin.

Spotted in Bookazine Hong Kong 🇭🇰 — a trade paperback of @vaseemkhanuk.bsky.social’s Quantum of Menace #007

This is one of my favourite songs and this is just absolutely brilliant.

@bookshop-org-uk.bsky.social is my go to for books now, I love the fact they now do ebooks through their own dedicated reader now.

I’m a ‘two reminders for every meeting’ kind of guy myself. On the day. On my calendar it’s a two day countdown.

This is a brilliant listen on Audible, definitely worth a credit👇

Lidl has put Toy Banks in stores where you can donate a gift for a child who wouldn’t otherwise have one on Christmas Day. Must be unopened and dropped off by 15th. Wonderful thing to do if you can (and there’s loads of cheap but great toy deals online still). www.lidl.co.uk/c/christmas-...

Martin Parr in 1974. RIP to one of the most influential photographers of his generation. Photo by Geoff Howard.

I immediately thought ‘this is the kind of thing that could be on Ancient Aliens’, then I looked at the account name.

kind of obsessed with this custom binding for Moby dick by Susan and Chaim Ebanks at Exeter Bookbinders

@garethjohnbrown.bsky.social is a great guy and an even better writer 👇

I like LOTR but it had nowhere near the impact it did to me as a young teenager reading the Redwall series by Brian Jacques.

How an invasion of purple flowers made Iceland an Instagram paradise – and caused a biodiversity crisis