Great to see Ben making the shortlist!

Shelf 25 of my science fiction library. Mostly @adamroberts.bsky.social with a dash of @unlikelyworlds.bsky.social at the end there. 🪐📚 #shelfie #scifibooks #sciencefiction #bookcollecting

As a higher-rate tax payer, let me say: GOOD.

There's a bunch of Tory writers I absolutely love: Scott, Tolkien, Geoffrey Hill.

Me: I had an idea for a whodunit! @runrober.bsky.social: eh? Me: it's set on a Viking longboat! They set off from Scandinavia & then one of them is murdered! But who dun it? Sven? Hans? Harald Longbeard? RR: *not really listening* hmm, yes, and who cares? Me: oh

Also sharing some quotes from folks who have generously read advance copies - with huge thanks!

I don't know what I thought Pierre Boulle ("The Bridge over the River Kwai" and "Planet of the Apes" author) looked like, but it wasn't like this. Also: he appears to be playing chess with marshmallows instead of chess-pieces.

"It's one small Pac for -man, one giant WOKKAWOKKAWOKKA for Pac-kind"

That's not how you spell "car".

Don't be fooled by the rocks that I got I'm still I'm still Definitely not stealing material from the quarry, honestly. No: honestly.

Now this is what I call "water colour"

This reads as though Mark Clifton is the name of the man who saves the world.

Phil responds, eloquently, and at length. philipchristman.substack.com/p/responding...

I initially read that as "BEST OPENED AND SERVED BETWEEN THE 18th AND 20th CENTURIES"

Currently reading. I wonder what the ratio is of "people who know this story in one form or another" to "people who have actually read the original novel" (see also: Frankenstein, Oliver Twist)

Here's a somewhat argumentative (somewhat) substack on @philipchristman.bsky.social 's excellent new book. open.substack.com/pub/profadam...

"18-foot Tall Gandalf" is the name of my new band.

Shopping via @runrober.bsky.social's list. Tesco seems all put of "viper".

Now THIS is a style! It looks like Blessed fell asleep in the street and a trundling road-markings van painted an AHEAD ONLY arrow over his face.

This is amazing work by Adam who may never recover from the toll of reading the Booker longlist. Only one of the books appealed to me after reading the reviews.

Today in Friday Paradoxes. In maths "hundreds" and "thousands" are very different. In sugary-sprinkles "hundreds and thousands" are all, basically, the same.

Lately I've been reading and blogging about the 2025 Booker longlist. Don't ask me why. I have several more pressing writing commissions, and term is about to start. But here we are: I've written mini-essays on 10 of the 13 titles (link downthread). Overall, quality-wise: *gallic shrug* bof. 1/

otherwise I'm just going to read @adamroberts.bsky.social's mesmerizing JACK GLASS again (if you haven't read it, I highly recommend. Appending the Adam Roberts Literature Map from www.literature-map.com/adam+roberts...)

I've just realised I perpetrate a split infinitive in this blogpost. Apologies. I'm going to have to drive the post out into the wilderness, douse it in petrol, and burn it to cinders.

You have somehow (are you a sword-swallower?) ingested six absolutely enormous walnuts, shell and all. It's going to take you longer than 3 hours to digest them, believe me.

Another Booker longlistee here: Ledia Xhoga's "Misinterpretation". profadamroberts.substack.com/p/ledia-xhog...

MACBETH: Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow ... ME: So ... Saturday?

I'm sorry to hear that Redford has died (a great movie-star) but people skeeting this movie poster has arrested me. Really? It's like a poster for DEATH OF THE NILE with the murderer's face on it, or a poster for SOYLENT GREEN with "... IS PEOPLE".

Should we contaminate it instead with Laurel microbes? They'd be stupider. But possibly more dangerous.

Dr Seuss presumably got the word "Grinch" from French: "grincher" means to steal and "un grinche" is a thief. So "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas" is a tautological title. www.cnrtl.fr/definition/g...

Happy Owain Glyndŵr Day to all who celebrate. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Owain_G...

Just a spoonful of monster helps the Frankenstein go down the Frankenstein go down the Frankenstein go down

But a slide rule does *not* burn snodgrass. A slide rule calculates mathematical sums. This is blatant false advertising.

Editor: You get those photos of Frankenstein and his monster? Photographer: Sure did boss, real fuckin sexy just like you asked. Editor: what

On Susan Choi's "Flashlight": profadamroberts.substack.com/p/susan-choi...

Coming soon, my guaranteed bestseller: THE J-PLAN DIET.

This looks like a still from a Woodpunk reboot of "The Prisoner".

Shakespeare doesn't get enough credit for inventing "Skull Cricket", a bona fide improvement on the original game.

As soon as this comes up I'm straight in the car, with a boot full of dusty carpets and a dirty song in my head.

I've read this book and it's really great. I'll post a review later in the week, although it's the kind of book that effortlessly and brilliantly provokes thoughts in the reader, so my review will mostly be about me.

Roses are red Hedges are box sward

Relieved to have finished this, which isn't a reaction that speaks to enjoyment. profadamroberts.substack.com/p/susan-choi...

I mean, if it is, I suspect fans will ask for their money back. They've paid to see two blokes punch one another, not to watch them sit at a table and move pieces around a board. Even if they can manage that, in boxing gloves.

"Mozart" is short for "Moses Zartwangler", the composer's ful name.

Half an hour into the Russo bros "Electric State" movie ($320 million! one of the most expensive movies ever made!) and we're bailing. It is, as we professional critics like to say, shit.

Halfway through this. Not really feeling it tbh. But maybe the second half is excellent.

Up above the streets of Ascot Rainbow climbing high Everyone can see it smiling Over the sky

I just feel that, if we were to bring back these inducements, the Marathon would be a lot more interesting.