Really wanted to finish one more book before the end of the year, but forgot I’d promised to bake my tried and tested lemon poppy seed cake for tonight (about to bedrizzle this thing). On the plus side, we now have cake.

Some of Sergei Dovlatov’s work remains untranslated. This is an outrage.

If one of your resolutions is to buy fewer books in 2026, just buy loads in December instead! Follow me for more budgeting tips.

Or you could just not.

Out in February from @livunipress.bsky.social: The Corpse in Modern Irish Literature. The book started as a lockdown tweet. Delighted that it’s finally done! With Bridget English and @drreznicek.bsky.social

In Paris, a couple of tourists once asked me if I could direct them to the Eiffel Tower. Which we were standing in front of. In their defence, it was snowing heavily.

My resolutions for 2026: - finish the fucking monograph

Finishing the year with a few short books to bring my 2025 list to a round number.

Our 2025 titles are all part of our bumper book sale. Save up to 50% on a wide range of #poetry direct from us: ninearchespress.com/shop Support #indiepublishing

He ys ridinge a horse He ys emerald and svelte He will get reallye weirde If you lie about beltes The Greene Knighte Ys Cominge To Toun

Last Christmas I gave you my art But the very next day You gave it away This year I cut off my ear - Vincent Wham Gogh

My sister and I went to IKEA today with her two children, who loudly but obviously rightly berated us for not buying them every furry toy strategically placed in the showroom despite sybaritically splurging on luxuries for ourselves, such as *checks notes* a sieve, a bath curtain, and a dish rack.

I desperately want this article to finish writing itself.

Have returned for however long it may last for some light lurking and book promo.

In this week’s TLS: my review of @janjancl.bsky.social’s very interesting Immigration and Apocalypse (which I filed absolute ages ago). www.the-tls.com/religion/rel...

Read two collections from Tommy Pico’s Teebs tetralogy over the past month. Amazing.

Made myself a new friend.

Hiding from the world in a cabin somewhere. Have finished five books since I arrived two days ago. I could get used to this.

Received an extremely thoughtful and superbly executed homemade gift from a student this week. The world is burning and like many other teachers I often wonder why we still bother, but this is the kind of thing that reminds me it’s all worthwhile.

Published today.

The single most infuriating thing about Office is that it resets your settings with every. fucking. update. No, Word, I do not EVER want you to auto-“correct” things as I type, particularly given the fact that half the time you don’t even recognise what language I’m working in.

A lovely thunderstorm, and the pitter-patter of much-needed rain!

If students are allowed or enabled or encouraged to compose text using AI, they will not learn to compose text. It’s that simple. All of the rest is waffle and bullshit propagated by philistine con artists and swallowed by craven PMC cadres

Again, I cannot express how little I expected someone would usurp my position as "guy who takes ketamine in the company of a president".

People are always aghast at the “read pre-written paper aloud” format of humanities conferences but man when someone shows up and tries to wing it it’s a real good demonstration of why we do that

Marina Hyde just doesn’t miss.

I stopped eating meat almost a decade ago, but embarrassingly still fantasise about steaks, burgers, and stews. Will it ever end?

Made myself a new friend.

As mentioned here, conditions are certainly much better here in NL, but the downside is that there are far fewer places available, so competition is gruelling, particularly in the humanities. Moreover, as a result of the far right govt’s HE budget cuts the number of positions has started to drop.

Eff why aye

Aww yes, been looking forward to @griffski.bsky.social’s new novel for years! And thank you to @kennysbookshop.bsky.social for the excellent service, as usual.

My latest cartoon for New Scientist.

Another faculty-wide meeting about budget cuts today. Everything’s fucked, but at least we’ll get a lovely sticker on our balance sheet. 🥰

This, absolutely.

If I have unlimited access to the full book, why can't I just download it in one go... Academic databases are the worst.

Check out this free extract from Water in the Desert, Fire in the Night

🗃️ What do migrants think, feel, do, and pack on the eve of departure, in transit, and when returning home? See "Rituals of Migration" @nyupress.bsky.social edited by @kevinkenny.bsky.social and @irpinaingiro.bsky.social nyupress.org/978147982513... @gihnyu.bsky.social @tedsmyth.bsky.social 🧵1/5

This has been a hugely important resource for my research. Fuck.

Yet another new idea for an article just presented itself. Trying to finish four articles and a monograph, but progress has been glacial this year. Still, should be able to find some time for writing it in, oh, 2029.

After the brutal reality of dealing with student papers in the ChatGPT era finally hit me, here are a few tactics that I've found at least somewhat effective in getting students to do their own writing: 🧵

This is just so incredibly sad to me. It's not just that people think they are clever for hacking their way through school without work. It's that they don't WANT to learn new things. They don't WANT to improve skills. They don't WANT EDUCATION. nymag.com/intelligence...

Why not stab yourself with an old screwdriver and get a nice tetanus jab! Follow me for more DIY tips and tricks.

it’s crazy that somebody invented linkedin in the same world where little brown birds hop along the sidewalk in the dappled shade

Sir Terence David John Pratchett, born 28 April 1948🎂

This is monstrous. Including the scare quotes in the headline.

THE BIGGEST NEWS! Rob and I are offering up a hand-signed hardback, first edition/first printing copy of Monstrous Regiment straight from the Pratchett archives. Those who know the story will know why it’s a pertinent one for this cause. (More pics to come.) www.32auctions.com/organization...

Naïvely, I expected that even the thickest, most attention-seeking members of the “anti-woke” commentariat would decide to sit this one out.

The UK's political and media class has spent years heaping sadism on trans people, and they want to do the same in Ireland next. Calls for civility and calm won't cut it. We need to fight them tooth and nail. www.irishexaminer.com/lifestyle-co...

On common sense.

Curious about where to start in Terry Pratchett's VAST catalogue? I wrote this for @theguardian.com. www.theguardian.com/books/2025/a...