Brian Busby
@brianbusby.bsky.social
Writer, écrivain public, anthologist, literary historian, bibliophile, and three-time winner of the Ice Capades Colouring Contest.
Author of Character Parts (Knopf), A Gentleman of Pleasure (McGill-Queen's UP), and The Dusty Bookcase (Biblioasis).
Author of Character Parts (Knopf), A Gentleman of Pleasure (McGill-Queen's UP), and The Dusty Bookcase (Biblioasis).
Pirates of the Caribbean.
Q: What happens to the oil on the tanker you seized?
TRUMP: Well we keep it I guess
TRUMP: Well we keep it I guess
December 10, 2025 at 10:03 PM
Pirates of the Caribbean.
One hundred years ago today, Canada's newspaper of record publishes a list of the years best books, somehow missing Manhattan Transfer, An American Tragedy, The Great Gatsby, Mrs Dalloway, and No More Parades, while celebrating James Oliver Curwood's latest. brianbusby.blogspot.com/2025/12/the-...
The 1925 Globe 110: Less Motoring, More Reading
Much to my dismay, this year's Globe 100 was published late last month. I thought I'd made it clear last year that November is too early. Th...
brianbusby.blogspot.com
December 9, 2025 at 8:37 PM
One hundred years ago today, Canada's newspaper of record publishes a list of the years best books, somehow missing Manhattan Transfer, An American Tragedy, The Great Gatsby, Mrs Dalloway, and No More Parades, while celebrating James Oliver Curwood's latest. brianbusby.blogspot.com/2025/12/the-...
Reposted by Brian Busby
"The Confederacy was a reactionary semi-feudal regime which sought to destroy the American republic and impose on it an outgrown economic system, Negro chattel slavery."
There you go. One sentence. That was easy.
From a book review in The Daily World, Dec. 1941.
There you go. One sentence. That was easy.
From a book review in The Daily World, Dec. 1941.
December 6, 2025 at 11:48 PM
"The Confederacy was a reactionary semi-feudal regime which sought to destroy the American republic and impose on it an outgrown economic system, Negro chattel slavery."
There you go. One sentence. That was easy.
From a book review in The Daily World, Dec. 1941.
There you go. One sentence. That was easy.
From a book review in The Daily World, Dec. 1941.
As a teen, I looked for shortcuts in Coles Notes. ChatGPT is something entirely different, and entirely unreliable.
It's not so much that it gets things wrong - it does - but that it fabricates.
brianbusby.blogspot.com/2025/11/disc...
It's not so much that it gets things wrong - it does - but that it fabricates.
brianbusby.blogspot.com/2025/11/disc...
Discussing Canadian Lit With ChatGPT: Alternative Facts or Alternate Universe?
A brief addendum to the recent post on The Magpie . It has now been three years since ChatGPT was released to the public. I was AI-curious...
brianbusby.blogspot.com
November 27, 2025 at 10:13 PM
As a teen, I looked for shortcuts in Coles Notes. ChatGPT is something entirely different, and entirely unreliable.
It's not so much that it gets things wrong - it does - but that it fabricates.
brianbusby.blogspot.com/2025/11/disc...
It's not so much that it gets things wrong - it does - but that it fabricates.
brianbusby.blogspot.com/2025/11/disc...
My second contribution to @crowdsourceherbook.bsky.social - "Women's book history and participatory science – an experiment."
Some more book entries out on the blog today, among them a novel by Frank Norris with a very sweet Valentine's inscription and traces of pressed flowers inside, contributed by @brianbusby.bsky.social. Thank you! #bookhistory
#39 Lulu Bird’s Blix, 1899
This book was kindly shared by Brian Busby. Type of ownership mark: inscriptionTranscription: “Heres [sic] a true little story of the land – you are going to – For Lulu Bird from – the skipper of the ...
csherbook.hypotheses.org
November 27, 2025 at 9:05 PM
My second contribution to @crowdsourceherbook.bsky.social - "Women's book history and participatory science – an experiment."
Reposted by Brian Busby
Reposted by Brian Busby
The administration that uncancelled swastikas yesterday wants us to believe that it is blackmailing universities because it is so sincerely against antisemitism?
November 21, 2025 at 5:17 PM
The administration that uncancelled swastikas yesterday wants us to believe that it is blackmailing universities because it is so sincerely against antisemitism?
Reposted by Brian Busby
Swedish Deputy PM: Sweden needs to pick its friends wisely, and we are choosing Canada… So when we come to America, we come to Canada now.
November 19, 2025 at 8:29 PM
Swedish Deputy PM: Sweden needs to pick its friends wisely, and we are choosing Canada… So when we come to America, we come to Canada now.
The Long November first appeared in 1946 as a Dutton hardcover. In the next decade, five paperback editions followed, culminating in a pirated edition. After 67 years, it was returned to press by the Véhicule Press Ricochet imprint. Given the title, it seems almost the poster child for #Noirvember.
November 14, 2025 at 10:33 PM
The Long November first appeared in 1946 as a Dutton hardcover. In the next decade, five paperback editions followed, culminating in a pirated edition. After 67 years, it was returned to press by the Véhicule Press Ricochet imprint. Given the title, it seems almost the poster child for #Noirvember.
A gift from a reader who considers this the best post-Great War Canadian novel. I think he's right.
Here's to @invisibooks.bsky.social for returning the novel to print.
brianbusby.blogspot.com/2025/11/the-...
Here's to @invisibooks.bsky.social for returning the novel to print.
brianbusby.blogspot.com/2025/11/the-...
The Great War and Its Discontents
The Magpie Douglas Durkin Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1974 351 pages Craig Forrester has received a telephone call from Mrs Gilber...
brianbusby.blogspot.com
November 14, 2025 at 9:35 PM
A gift from a reader who considers this the best post-Great War Canadian novel. I think he's right.
Here's to @invisibooks.bsky.social for returning the novel to print.
brianbusby.blogspot.com/2025/11/the-...
Here's to @invisibooks.bsky.social for returning the novel to print.
brianbusby.blogspot.com/2025/11/the-...
Remembering Signaller Frank P. Dixon (1898-1918), farmer and poet, this Remembrance Day.
brianbusby.blogspot.com/2025/11/reme...
brianbusby.blogspot.com/2025/11/reme...
Remembrance Day
The son of William and Ellen Dixon, Frank Percival Dixon was born on 16 April 1898 in Elkhorn, Manitoba, not far from the Saskatchewan borde...
brianbusby.blogspot.com
November 11, 2025 at 6:37 PM
Remembering Signaller Frank P. Dixon (1898-1918), farmer and poet, this Remembrance Day.
brianbusby.blogspot.com/2025/11/reme...
brianbusby.blogspot.com/2025/11/reme...
It was fifty years ago this evening.
November 11, 2025 at 12:29 AM
It was fifty years ago this evening.
Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States.
November 10, 2025 at 9:44 PM
Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States.
If you're looking for a film to watch this snowy Sunday I recommend After the Harvest. Based on Martha Ostenso's Wild Geese, it has a dynamite script, and some very fine acting. Aired once on CTV and never again, you can find it on YouTube.
#canit #cdnhist
brianbusby.blogspot.com/2025/11/wild...
#canit #cdnhist
brianbusby.blogspot.com/2025/11/wild...
<i>Wild Geese</i> on Film (Part 3): <i>After the Harvest</i>
The third of three addendums to the recent post about Martha Ostenso's 1925 bestselling novel . The only film adaptation of Wild Geese re...
brianbusby.blogspot.com
November 9, 2025 at 7:06 PM
If you're looking for a film to watch this snowy Sunday I recommend After the Harvest. Based on Martha Ostenso's Wild Geese, it has a dynamite script, and some very fine acting. Aired once on CTV and never again, you can find it on YouTube.
#canit #cdnhist
brianbusby.blogspot.com/2025/11/wild...
#canit #cdnhist
brianbusby.blogspot.com/2025/11/wild...
This, and the fact that RFK,Jr exited as fast as he could without breaking into a sprint.
These are your leaders.
These are your leaders.
November 6, 2025 at 10:03 PM
This, and the fact that RFK,Jr exited as fast as he could without breaking into a sprint.
These are your leaders.
These are your leaders.
Thoughts on the 1961 Austrian adaptation of Martha Ostenso's 1925 CanLit classic Wild Geese.
Here I attempt to review a film in a language I know not.
What fun!
#canlit #cdnhist #film
brianbusby.blogspot.com/2025/11/wild...
Here I attempt to review a film in a language I know not.
What fun!
#canlit #cdnhist #film
brianbusby.blogspot.com/2025/11/wild...
<i>Wild Geese</i> on Film (Part 2): <i>Ruf der Wildgänse</i>
The second of three addendums to the recent post about Martha Ostenso's 1925 bestselling novel . It's hard to know what to make of Ruf der...
brianbusby.blogspot.com
November 5, 2025 at 12:42 AM
Thoughts on the 1961 Austrian adaptation of Martha Ostenso's 1925 CanLit classic Wild Geese.
Here I attempt to review a film in a language I know not.
What fun!
#canlit #cdnhist #film
brianbusby.blogspot.com/2025/11/wild...
Here I attempt to review a film in a language I know not.
What fun!
#canlit #cdnhist #film
brianbusby.blogspot.com/2025/11/wild...
Damn! Too bad I'm not American. That $50,000 signing bonus sure is tempting.
Interested in helping ICE protect the Homeland?
Check out the Lincoln Project's useful video guide!
open.substack.com/pub/therickw...
Check out the Lincoln Project's useful video guide!
open.substack.com/pub/therickw...
Your Guide To Working for ICE
Interested in joining ICE to defend the Homeland?
open.substack.com
November 4, 2025 at 12:13 AM
Damn! Too bad I'm not American. That $50,000 signing bonus sure is tempting.
About the Mar-a-Lago Great Gatsby party, this from the novel's author:
“Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me. They possess and enjoy early, and it does something to them..."
“Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me. They possess and enjoy early, and it does something to them..."
Dancers at Trump’s Halloween party as people begin losing food stamps under his administration
November 2, 2025 at 7:40 PM
About the Mar-a-Lago Great Gatsby party, this from the novel's author:
“Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me. They possess and enjoy early, and it does something to them..."
“Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me. They possess and enjoy early, and it does something to them..."
Watching the movie because you didn't feel like reading the book and other mistakes made in high school.
brianbusby.blogspot.com/2025/11/wild...
#oldhollywood #silentfilm #canlit #cdnhist
brianbusby.blogspot.com/2025/11/wild...
#oldhollywood #silentfilm #canlit #cdnhist
November 1, 2025 at 4:35 PM
Watching the movie because you didn't feel like reading the book and other mistakes made in high school.
brianbusby.blogspot.com/2025/11/wild...
#oldhollywood #silentfilm #canlit #cdnhist
brianbusby.blogspot.com/2025/11/wild...
#oldhollywood #silentfilm #canlit #cdnhist
Two ways to destroy the White House:
1) invade Canada;
2) elect Donald Trump.
1) invade Canada;
2) elect Donald Trump.
October 22, 2025 at 7:20 PM
Two ways to destroy the White House:
1) invade Canada;
2) elect Donald Trump.
1) invade Canada;
2) elect Donald Trump.
My submission to CrowdsourceHerBook: Women's book history and participatory science – an experiment.
Amongst other things, it is a visual treat.
#canlit #cdnhist
Amongst other things, it is a visual treat.
#canlit #cdnhist
This prize was awarded to Katie Seymour of Ryde, Isle of Wight, "for attention to studies" in 1893. Thanks to @brianbusby.bsky.social for sharing the book and its story! #herbook #bookhistory #womenshistory
#29 Katie Seymour’s Christie Redfern’s Troubles (1892)
This book was kindly shared by Brian Busby. Type of ownership mark: gift label, inscriptionTranscription: “Mall Board School, Brading. MISS MOORE’S PRIZE. PRESENTED TO Katie Seymour for attention to s...
csherbook.hypotheses.org
October 21, 2025 at 8:38 PM
My contribution to the #1925club is a novel I dodged over four decades.
It's fantastic!
brianbusby.blogspot.com/2025/10/wild...
It's fantastic!
brianbusby.blogspot.com/2025/10/wild...
Wild Wild Geese
Wild Geese Martha Ostenso New York: Dodd, Mead. 1925 pages The winner of the inaugural $13,500 Dodd-Mead-Famous-Players-Pictorial Review Pri...
brianbusby.blogspot.com
October 20, 2025 at 8:56 PM
My contribution to the #1925club is a novel I dodged over four decades.
It's fantastic!
brianbusby.blogspot.com/2025/10/wild...
It's fantastic!
brianbusby.blogspot.com/2025/10/wild...
Forget Rush's Ayn Rand influenced and quoting 2112, this is the band at its stupidest and very worst. Even as a kid, I recognized their bullshit. Released on my 15th birthday, as was Iggy Pop's Lust for Life. Guess which I preferred.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnC8...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnC8...
Rush - The Trees
YouTube video by RushVEVO
www.youtube.com
October 17, 2025 at 9:22 PM
Forget Rush's Ayn Rand influenced and quoting 2112, this is the band at its stupidest and very worst. Even as a kid, I recognized their bullshit. Released on my 15th birthday, as was Iggy Pop's Lust for Life. Guess which I preferred.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnC8...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnC8...