Status: imprisoned on the recliner.

Recently I told students about this. First, they thought I was kidding. Second, they immediately understood the power differentials and innate creepiness of it all.

This week I learned how to derail the medical humanities class by asking students to name their least favorite organ.

The books for Literature and Medicine next semester.

Next semester's reading in the Medical Humanities course.

The majors have informed me that their Halloween reading list includes Angela Carter, Oscar Wilde, Poe, Mary Shelley, and my second book(?).

It's pub day (birthday 0?) for Writing Through Writer's Block: Lessons from Modern American Fiction! This is a study of how authors have used the archetype of the blocked writer to identify, analyze, and ultimately work through both internal and external constraints on their creative abilities.

That my review is #3 @lareviewofbooks.bsky.social suggests that the strategies (and politics) of reading continue to fascinate.

Part of the author's contract with LARB reads that they may pursue "dramatic film and television, stage plays, non-dramatic productions, and web series" derived from the author's work. So now I'm trying to imagine what "Close Reading: The Netflix Series" might look like.

It’s the official publication day for Painful Forms! I’m so pleased to see the book out in the world and grateful forever to @uncpress.bsky.social for making that happen. uncpress.org/978146968894...

And here's the first review of Close Reading for the Twenty-First Century, from @profdgd.bsky.social in @lareviewofbooks.bsky.social lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-...

"Instead of mystery, Sinykin and Winant see possibility: to them, close reading is a practice that anyone can learn." I'm really grateful for @profdgd.bsky.social 's extremely thoughtful review in @lareviewofbooks.bsky.social today as he writes -- "It’s enough to make the heart skip a beat."

"The finished product of a close reading exudes confidence, obscuring how much of close reading is uncertainty." @profdgd.bsky.social on "Close Reading for the Twenty-First Century." https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-problem-of-the-parlor/

In Monday's Los Angeles Review of Books.

In my mailbox today, a book well worth reading.

Page proofs!

The subject of the theory class tomorrow.

Arrived yesterday and already through the first chapter of what I think will be a very important book.

We're beginning the formalism/close reading section this week. There's an article to be written about how Brooks and Warren, and an entirely army of formalists in critical journals throughout the fifties, agreed that "this is a bad poem." www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazi...

A colleague down the hall taught Bartleby this week and I felt major FOMO.

The conference schedule gods looked kindly upon me this year.

Got my first e-mail about Spring 2026 courses.

Glad to have been a part of it!

Got a page of writing done and

Science dude who wants to separate science from the humanities (for uncompelling if not stock reasons) also teaches professional ethics, which is more than a tinge humanities.

Velcro chihuahua.

Beware English professors who encounter this on their way to the office.

This week's reading is quite good and, sadly, quite timely. @thesaramarcus.bsky.social

lfg! preorders for THE CAMPUS CRISIS TOOLKIT edited by @thetattooedprof.bsky.social and Lisa Di Bartolomeo are now available! get 30% off the low, low price of $29.95 with code SBACK25 during @sunypress.bsky.social's back-to-school sale. 💪📚 sunypress.edu/Books/T/The-...

Having burned my balding pate twice so far this summer, I have opted for a comfortable but ridiculous hat.

For American Vandal fans who might want a few more of my thoughts on resentful reading, ask your local library to loan or order a copy of my book! www.upress.virginia.edu/title/5889/

*me and my book project

Well worth a listen, with a little hint of a larger project I’m working on.

I had the pleasure of reading this book, and you should too!

Today’s reading.

Today’s reading, which is quite good!

Vaguely concerned about what might be on the menu.

Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to get a pompadour?

There are a few niche publications which are still critiquing Trump's goldfish night terror approach to economic policy with the message, "Everything was going fine. Why'd he have to muck it all up!?!" And when I read them I understand what @profdgd.bsky.social means by "reading for resentment."

This month’s fun reading.

OhioLINK is on pause for upgrades and I am suffering major withdrawal symptoms.

Listening to the latest Stereolab on ancient technology (my car’s CD player).

It may say something about when I went to college that I own four copies of White Noise.

Cleaning/rearranging the bookcases: the emotion shelf is getting a little cramped.

I love homemade kale chips but they always come with a 10-15% chance of burning the house down.

Listen up! Joshua Gooch on Struggle Session talking about horror and his new book Capitalism Hates You: Marxism and The New Horror Film @joshuagooch.bsky.social

I had a surprise chance to catch up on my reading yesterday and this is certainly going on the literature and medicine syllabus next spring. www.wavepoetry.com/products/pat...

I polled next semester's students to see which schools of criticism they would like to do a deep dive on. The answer? Psychoanalysis; Ecocriticism; Postcolonialism.

The gift to congratulate myself for the endowed chair may be a bit sobering.

I have been named ONU’s Ridenour Endowed Professor in the Humanities. I’ll have the opportunity to put together book three and, if I am lucky, start a brief, public-facing book four. I’ll also be able to bring a few names in medical humanities to our campus. I’m thankful and excited!