Reading old issues of Library Journal again

Also every time (exploitative) ebook and audiobook licensing comes up, I implore everyone to read this fantastic @nyuengelberg.org white paper: www.nyuengelberg.org/outputs/the-...

An advice i can give to librarians starting out is to focus on learning from first principles. Actually understand how things work as deeply as you can. It can be difficult & gains will not be obvious at first but in the long run are more adaptable & capable of seeing implications of changes(1)

yeah i bet a car would have won too

Last week in between the storms and floods, the cats and I read book 17, Matrix by Lauren Groff. This is the first book I've read by Groff, and I'm looking forward to reading more of her work.

This week Archie and I somehow read book 16, Stag Dance by Torrey Peters, despite everything going on outside. I loved this book. One of my favorites so far this year.

This weekend, Sal, Archie, and I are reading about spirits and space whales in books 14 and 15 of 2026, My Darling Dreadful Thing by Johanna van Veen and Hell's Heart by Alexis Hall.

This is so, so well-articulated.

Baseball is back, which means my friend is once again sending me photos of Brewers player Sal Frelick that look like my cat, Sal Furlick

Sunday morning with the cats and book 13 of 2026, Knockout by Sarah MacLean.

He's not a fan of these new doppelgangers

Terrific new article about how the idea of "neutrality" has been used for decades to deny the approval of #LCSH relating to marginalized people. Great description of how subject headings are created and how inordinate scrutiny is given to certain proposals in order to appear "unbiased." #critcat 📚

i love how so much of digital accessibility is just reaffirming what librarians have been trying to tell you for 1000 years: METADATA IS IMPORTANT, ACTUALLY

Got their legs out

Give PTA another Oscar for inspiring Fiona Apple to write When the Pawn.

The cats and I are now on book 12 (I think) of 2026, A/S/L by Jeanne Thornton. I'm about halfway through, and it's excellent so far. Looking forward to discussing it with my book club later this month.

Spending a vacation day reading old issues of Library Journal and feeling attacked

No one wants to read your thesis! That’s not why you write one!

Finished Moby Dick last week but still thinking about it, so today Archie and I are reading Why Read Moby Dick? by Nathaniel Philbrick while he hides from the rain, which he doesn't fully understand but knows that sometimes it causes loud booming noises that he doesn't like.

If you have the means, please donate to the Trans Continental Pipeline right now. They are a Colorado based org that helps trans people relocate and they are overwhelmed with requests. Colorado borders Kansas, and TCP has the infrastructure to help get people out. tcpipeline.org

Starting book #10 of 2026, Vigil by George Saunders, while Archie tries to convince me it's time for second dinner.

Writing is thinking. It's not some marginal boring task you can skip. It's the heart of it.

Still working on Moby Dick but also reading book #9, Woodworking by Emily St. James. The cats don't care about it because it's 60 degrees (in February in Milwaukee!) and the window is open.

Book 8 of 2026 is Moby Dick. I've never read it before, and I'm only about a quarter of the way through, but I *love* it so far. Upset with myself for not reading it sooner.

Reading with the cats in 2026, books 6 and 7: The Wilderness by Angela Flournoy and The Woods All Black by Lee Mandelo

One of the volunteer artists for the @wischumane.bsky.social annual Poorly Drawn Pets fundraiser drew this amazing portrait of Sal and Archie, which I obviously will be printing and framing.

feel gross self-promoting when ICE is murdering people so I keep reposting & then immediately un-reposting, but it's awards season & I'm proud of this story. anyway fuck AI, the baby food of fascism.

It appears that this legend owns a little bookstore — and you can order books from him instead of Bezos. Link in next post.

In good news today, a few hours ago my downstairs neighbor adopted this shy girl, who has been passed over at the shelter for the last two months because she has been so scared there. She is so sweet, and she's warming up much faster than we thought she would.

Playing Horizon Zero Dawn, a favorite of mine that I haven't played in a while, and just now noticing Elisabet Sobek founded an AI company to sell "green robots" and it won both a Nobel Peace Prize and the "2056 Rachel Carson Award for Environmental Progress." Brilliant.

I've learned recently that if you get a cat to sleep on top of your legs and refuse to move, you can turn down your heat and save a bit of money. We've spent the whole weekend like this, reading books 4 and 5 for 2026: Mirage City by Lev AC Rosen and To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis.

I find Gmail’s new “write this for me” feature deeply sinister. They’re trying to convince you that you are dumb and helpless. Don’t let them steal your ability to formulate thoughts and communicate. You were capable of writing an email in 2022 and you’re capable now.

Sal, a small cat who has to be as warm as possible at all times, has started sleeping underneath the blankets I leave on the couch.

Reading with the cats again. Our first book of 2026 is "The Salvage" by Anbara Salam. Queers, ghosts, and a fantastic cover.

Three years today with these guys. They were so scared in the shelter that they refused to meet me, but they turned out to be the nicest, most gentle cats I've ever known. (Still very scared of lots of things, but hey, the world is a pretty scary place.)

It's not even Thanksgiving yet and Archie is over here trying to start shit with his brother

In addition to money donations to food banks & food aid for people, please also consider donating money or food & litter to pet food pantries. Many people who rely on SNAP to feed themselves will now need to redirect $ to buy groceries that they would have spent on pet food before.

Sunday afternoon storytime with the whole family

🧵It has been clear for years that a key difference between past instances of book banning and the present censorship cataclysm is that the banning happening now targets not only books, but librarianship as a profession and libraries as an institution. 1/4

Reading with the cats again (a very good stress-relieving activity, if you need one). Yesterday, A Mouthful of Dust by Nghi Vo, and today, All of Us Murderers by KJ Charles. Good spooky vibes for the weekend.

can't believe Archie did not win the Nobel Peace Prize for this

Archie, a librarian's son, spent some time trying to figure out the bookshelves this morning

Saw someone say, “Stop hoarding books, we don’t need paper books anyway” and I can’t express how misguided this is. Online libraries disappear, digital books can be altered, and with Big Tech seeking to destroy history and literacy, print media has never been more essential.

This would be why I am such a strident critic of digitization as a substitute for actual archival preservation. My sixteenth century documents are far sturdier and likely to survive another 500 years than the detritus on the internet. And digitization is not democratization.

Saturday afternoon, amidst the doom scrolling: a good book, a cat, and my favorite John Prine t-shirt (my only John Prine t-shirt, but still my favorite)

Also great! "That's why I think we should fund libraries more. It's not just because they're a great resource, it's because I don't wanna know what librarians will do if we don't give them a place to go."

Good morning from already flooded Milwaukee

A friend of mine wrote a book about the history of film censorship in Milwaukee and it's being turned into a documentary! The filmmaker needs at least 250 people to follow the project at the link below to ensure it will be available streaming. Donating is great too if you can do so!

One of my favorite digital collections! I created this back when I got to do this kind of thing, and almost a decade later, the local NPR station interviewed my former colleague about it.