Today's task: a love poem in cipher at the back of an otherwise quotidian local woman's memorandum book.

Our next Bibliographical Skills Workshop is taking place at the University of Stirling, on 28 October 2025: ies.sas.ac.uk/news-events/...

I'm really delighted to say that following submission of my thesis in December, I'll be starting as a full-time cataloguer and bookseller at the Keel Row Bookshop, supported by a traineeship from the Antiquarian Booksellers' Association. Expect to see many more books here!

Hot take but it may be inadvisable for booksellers to describe 'Samuel Mearne bindings' on books printed 40 years after his death.

I've been reading a lot of introductions to get a feel for writing my own, and I fear this thesis may fall into the classic genre of 'book about the turn of the 18thc that begins with long quotation of questionable relevance from Pepys' Diary/London Spy/The Spectator.'

Some days I wonder if doing a whacko collation over the course of 2 days is worth it or if '8 volumes, gathered in an erratic order' would have the same effect.

Perhaps my most heinous take is that books as furniture is a practice that is both rooted in the long tradition of using books as vehicles for visually appealing bindings, and is a necessary means of dealing with the swathes of volumes that have few other uses. www.theguardian.com/books/2025/j...

There have been too many instances in this PhD where following up a citation leads to me realising that some apparently momentous event in the history of sexuality was probably just made up by John Wilkes in an attempt to impress women.

I have rarely seen a work of art that speaks to me so specifically.

Earlier today, Patrick J. Kearney emailed me to tell me that he fabricated five letters allegedly written from James Campbell Reddie to Henry Spencer Ashbee, a transcription of which he has posted on his website + scissors-and-paste.net/pdf/Reddie_L...

Today I am a bibliographer of erotica, reading a letter between two other bibliographers of erotica, which was mounted into a a bibliographer of erotica's copy of the Erotika Biblion.

My ambition for a bookshop is to have a floor dedicated to 'specialist publications' that consists of scarce but unsaleable books.

Does anyone on here have any recommendations for reading about gender and hobbyists? Particularly about how male hobbyists create intimate communities around homosocial hobbies? I remember reading something years ago about the sexual politics of model army builders but I now can't recall it at all

Just wanted to shout out NOTCHES, the history of sexuality blog I help to edit, which is feeling a little lonely on Bluesky at the moment! If you'd like to have more history of sexuality (including looooots of queer stuff) pop up on your feed, why not give us a follow? @notchesblog.bsky.social

Such an exciting programme! What better reason than this to come to the sunny Tyneside riviera in June?

ESTC not only being back but for the first time actually displaying the local catalogue notes is like all my Christmases have come at once.

Registration for the 3rd Queer Bibliography symposium is now live! Please share widely. Attendance is FREE with registration; the symposium runs 11-13 June both in-person at Newcastle University (UK) & online. Register (by 09 June): bit.ly/QB2025Register Short Programme: bit.ly/QB2025ShortP...

I don't think I've ever encountered a bibliography that announces so clearly up front that it is going to be wrong.

Proud that my local is the sort of pub where patrons quote modernist epics in toilet graffiti

PLEASE REPOST: I'm looking for someone to do one to two days (possibly more) of (paid) research assistance in Los Angeles for my current book project. I need someone who is experienced with archives, careful, and discreet. Ideal work for a grad student in history. ben [at] ben writes things dot com

Glad to see that this World Book Day that the local kids have once again embraced dressing up as the scarce jacket from W.W. Greg's 'Some Apsects and Problems of London Publishing between 1550-1650'.

This year's @stationerscomms.bsky.social Archives Evening focuses on women in the history of the Company; I'll be presenting some of my ongoing dissertation research, alongside other fabulous presentations. Please come along! 07 April 2025, 5:30-9:30pm, £40/ticket www.stationers.org/events/detai...

❗️CFP for the 3rd annual (!!) Queer Bibliography symposium in Newcastle & on Zoom! The organizers have worked so hard, and I’m honored to be on the planning committee. 📚 full cfp: bit.ly/QueerBiblio2... 📁 submission form: bit.ly/QB2025Propos... This call will close Fri 31 Jan 2025. Share & submit!

I've been working on 18thc puzzle-pictures recently. This 1786 ad in the Rambler shows the only way that I want to list books for sale.

🚨This Friday is the deadline to submit!🚨 It's set to be an exciting conference, hosted hybrid. If you have questions, ask me or any member of the committee, all of whom are listed in the cfp.

This FRIDAY, 31 Jan is the deadline if you are thinking about submitting to Queer Bib in the summer. It will be hybrid and free or token cost to attend. ASK if you have questions!

A reminder that you have 11 days until this closes! If I hadn't attended the first queer bib in 2023, I'd be writing a considerably different thesis, and without so many of the friends and collaborators that I met on those 3 days. Hopefully queer bib 2025 can be similarly formative for you...

Speaking of which, it's 2 weeks until this closes. Do submit!

Now that authors often publish in print on demand before they get a book deal, I've seen some quite eccentric true firsts printed in a4 with the default Kindle typeface. I think we might eventually see a lot of 'the second, and best, edition' in future...

You still have a few weeks to get your submissions in for #QueerBib2025! Links below 👇

I am #BSECS2025 bound today. I'll be talking in the last session on Friday about queer bibliography and images of boys in the margins of printed books.

Reposting the cfp for the 3rd Annual Queer Bibliography Conference, to be held at Newcastle University, and online 11-13 June 2025. Full cfp ➡️ bit.ly/QueerBiblio2... Submission form ➡️ bit.ly/QB2025Propos... Questions? ➡️ [email protected] Call closes 31 January. Please share widely!

CFP for the 3rd annual (!!) Queer Bibliography symposium. @18thcenturysam.bsky.social & @elizaaudacis.bsky.social have worked so hard organizing this! 📚 full cfp here: bit.ly/QueerBib2025 📁 submission form here: bit.ly/QB2025Propos... This call will close 31 January 2025. Share widely & submit!

Starting off the new year right

Happy Holigays! 🏳️‍🌈 🏳️‍⚧️ There’s about a month left to submit an abstract to Queer Bibliography 2025 in Newcastle! See you there? Info below 👇🏻

As someone who is preparing a catalogue on entirely obscure 19th century children's books, the Sandars Lectures this year could not have come at a better time... youtu.be/U8yi0HPPaAQ?...

The Catalog of Distinctive Type, a visual catalog of distinctive and damaged printing type originating in books published in England from 1660 to 1700

The tree is up. Couldn't find a topper so made our own this year.

Cataloguing the manuscript catalogue of a previously unknown 18thc book owner and I have arrived, following the single-sheet publications, at the 'Good Books'. This man may be the only person who thinks Robert Dodsley is the greatest among poets.

The public only liking T.S. Eliot's poetry when they are told after the fact that he wrote it is sadly further evidence that I.A. Richards was right all along. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

I spent too long today chasing up a quotation that I thought was from an Angela Carter interview which was, in fact, from the frontmatter of this book.

Constantly scillating between 'It's a Dick' and 'This Radical Thing is Fucked, Actually'.

I've had an inactive account for a while, but I can see many of us have become converts this past week. As a brief reintroduction, I'm a PhD candidate working on queer bibliographic approaches to 18thc erotic books. I've worked in rare book collections, and I'm newly an antiquarian bookseller!

am delighted to announce the cfp for Queer Bibliography: In the Making is now open. Please see the attached full cfp: bit.ly/QueerBib2025 and the submission form: bit.ly/QB2025Propos.... I look forward to seeing many of you next year!

Happy Valentine's Day from Bibliography's Daddies!

As you may have seen on SHARP the deadline has been extended to 15 February. Do please consider submitting and share with colleagues and networks

There is no experience more exciting for a descriptive bibliographer than the reader sitting next to you asking what a lightsheet is for.

I am headed to BSECs today, I'll be presenting my work on two poorly described editions of gay porn on Friday afternoon with the wonderful @elizaaudacis.bsky.social, Adam James-Smith and @drwilliams.bsky.social as well as introducing folks to a board game about hand press printing tomorrow evening!

The final countdown to #BSECS2024 has begun! Don’t forget to pack your fav #18thc game for our game night on Weds—let me & @18thcenturysam.bsky.social know if you are bringing something to play (details should be in your inbox under the @bsecs.bsky.social CFG). See you sooooooon!