For Banned Books Week, I wrote a piece about reading dragon books with my 13yo and how things got…complicated. www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/...

This article captures a lot of what has been on my mind lately about the industry (and then some). A good read. “It’s on readers to look beyond the season’s biggest titles that they’re being spoon-fed by major publishers.” We try to encourage this in the store! thewalrus.ca/the-publishi...

Just posted episode 100 — the very last one! — of John Updike's Ghost. Should be on the streamers shortly. It's just a normal episode. Which means it's awesome, but not, like, more awesome than usual. Just wait till you see what we come up with next.

Is this donation money countdown thing kind of messed up? Oh no, kids, actually you don’t get this money hahaha so fun #emmys

Halfway through this!

If you walk into a bookstore and see a bookseller crying, ask us what we just read.

Saw some art last week. This was my favorite, at The Campus in Hudson, NY. www.thecampusupstate.com

Last night I cleared some books off the nonfiction table and a dozen local bookstore owners came and ate pizza around it. It was pretty great. Dinner in a cozy bookstore! Clinging to the joy of that fellowship as I read the news this AM, which these days always requires a general bracing.

I don't know, I decided to start a blog. Some thoughts on books and bookselling: www.hannahharlow.com

Sunday morning read, the fictional account of Penelope Fitzgerald’s real-life trip to Mexico. Highly enjoyable so far, somehow the writing keeps you on your back foot in the best way.

I’m hearing a resounding thumbs up.

Seriously, someone talk us out of Four Books a Fortnight.

You guys check out EP97 of "John Updike's Ghost" yet? If you like death and/or time travel, this one's for you: pod.link/1594686894/e...

ICYMI: how I put together the talk I give on tour for a new book. Key questions you must answer, nuts and bolts almakatsu.substack.com/p/how-i-prep...

Once you see this chart, you will never unsee it.

You cannot opt out of reality!

We are very hot and will be sleeping all day.

Hala Alyan’s memoir I’LL TELL YOU WHEN I’M HOME is well worth your time. Gorgeously written in short vignettes it embodies the effects of a family’s displacement from their homes (Gaza, Kuwait, Lebanon) over time and generations and how to live with that and survive and endure and rebuild.

This book is so bonkers. I am mostly just along for this wild ride trying to absorb gems of truth and on page 167 I am comforted by the fact that a bookseller goes about bookselling as reality erodes (France, 1940) and is like, yeah, just read some Simenon already. This is basically me.

I hate this bc I know good former freelancers who have had to start new careers bc AI stole their jobs and now you’re telling me the few freelancers left are doing a shitty job and not even doing the actual writing. There are people who like writing! And they’re good at it!

Representative Becca Balint speaking on habeas corpus passionately.

McGovern: "You are literally taking food off kids' plates to buy Elon Musk another yacht. I guess he's getting a good return on his campaign donations ... this is not policy. This is theft."

Can’t wait for customers to come into the store asking for books that don’t exist. Have my booksellers go into a panic because they didn’t know Andy Weir has a new book out and then not be able to find it. All such a waste of time when we could be talking about good books that are real and here.

We believe independent publishing is the heartbeat of contemporary literature, and the best way we can help is to donate as we can, and continue to buy and read small press books 🧵 chireviewofbooks.com/2025/05/16/r...

Two translation houses I support with subscriptions and donations — are on this list Support their work! @openletterbooks.bsky.social and @deepvellum.bsky.social

Dang it. Whelp, time to order more books from them!

Oh hey, I’m moderating this event! It’s going to be great - and it’s virtual, so anyone can log on. Use the link to register!

We get to sell books at this event! We’re the luckiest. Come see us all day tomorrow at the UU church in Newburyport!

Fun Tariff Facts: during the depression the US lost access to many imported paper products. They were replaced with an unusually tough paper stock made of hemp from the Philippines (then a US colony, and tariff exempt). Anyway, that’s why they were, and still are, called Manila folders / envelopes.

In the Boston/South Shore area and need peaceful protest plans this weekend? Here's where to be and when: Cole's Hill, Plymouth - noon- 1pm (across from the Rock (No one escapes the Rock!)) Heritage Park, Weymouth - 2- 3pm Minuteman National Park - all day - 250th anniversary, expect big crowds

<notices a certain online retailer best known for waste-landing American downtowns is holding a book sale so it overlaps with Independent Bookstore Day> Huh. Be a damn shame if no one showed up for that, maybe blowing up the sales of stores that actually care about books & people. Yep, a damn shame

I missed my first pod after 88 episodes but thankfully Cyndle stepped in for me and I feel like we have similar taste? Like maybe you didn’t even notice it wasn’t me? I want to read all these books!

Part of the problem is the way we fetishize reading and try to make it into some kind of moral good. Reading can be fun and a good way to pass the time and something to talk about without being "good for you." People don't read for the same reason they don't exercise: It gets turned into a chore.

Dang. “Hell is waking up one morning and feeling like your rights were stripped away overnight, only to realize it’s been happening gradually over your lifetime—and for much of that time, all you did to try to stop it was vote.”

Ag’d sir, hands off.

Check the weather. Wear comfortable shoes. Coordinate with a group. Decide ahead of time what actions you will take. Have an escape plan if things go sideways. Charge your phone. We're in the streets today friends! handsoff2025.com/about

12yo: I asked my friends what they were reading and they said nothing right now. Can you believe it? The indecency! (He really said, “The indecency!”) Me: Unfortunately I think you’ll find this to be a common answer as you go along. You just have to find your readers.

Worth sharing with alt text. Brian Eno's response to the Quaker arrests.

Oh, look at that: Episode 88 is up on YouTube now! Eclectic selection this week. Recording 89 today and it will be a FIRST. Sort of. Actually, maybe a second now that we think about it. youtu.be/H-n9c3Q2XCk

They talk about my new book now I must use this meme

Pretty sure our pricing went up just so we could have this feature which we absolutely do not want.

Toni Morrison:

It’s my birthday so I’m not watching anything tonight. Feel free to send a picture of your cat.

It turns out the skill I have that is most monetizable in today's economy is writing bi-weekly newsletters. 60% open rates don't just grow on trees, folks.

Our store, @bfbookshop.bsky.social, puts out a really good newsletter every other week (@sampfeifle.bsky.social writes it). Like, we actually have things to say about books and the world we live in. People seem particularly taken with our most recent missive:

Annnnd our banned books discussion with @penamerica.bsky.social is up on the YT now, y'all: youtu.be/t2ZZn6nKaYk

I really really like her.

They want us to feel helpless. They want us to stay quiet. Honestly forget sometimes that I have outlets to not do either of those things.