Made new IRL friends! Reconnected with old IRL friends! Kept connected and entertained through lockdown! Ate in some amazing restaurants, read some amazing books, saw some amazing films/TV because of online recommendations! Got an agent! Just block idiots, life is too short. Also, fuck Twitter/FB

Dear AI book-marketing spammer,
You're right, The Coral Merchant does deserve more readers - but I regret to inform you that Mr Roth has been dead since 1939 and is unlikely to respond to your cheery, "Hi Joseph!"
At least this one made me laugh.

While we're thinking of Chris Knox, Bill Callahan's cover of Lapse www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEib...

the plot is often the least interesting bit about any book

Distribution is THE under-reported story in book publishing (outside of the trade publications) and losing B&T is going to have untold ripple effects on the industry, small presses, and authors.

Ben Ratskoff on Holocaust memorialization, immersive traumatization, and hyperreal antisemitism at the Nova Exhibition: thediasporist.de/schlock-and-...

Most enjoyable, I do recommend... (poor Chris, his stroke followed only a few years later)

Ralf will be 80 next year!

Adventures in North American Birding, Part 1: Fall Warblers Make Me Want To Cry

"The Clean’s Oddities cassette was rejected because of references to alcohol and drugs, with such offending lines as “sit all day and drink piss at the pub” (‘Hold Onto The Rail’) and “Who’s gonna take your pills today?” (‘Thumbs Off’)."

There's a biography of Chris Knox out this week - the author Craig Robertson contacted me a few years ago, as back in 1995 when I was at Ak Uni, I made a half hour documentary on Chris and he wanted to see it.
Anyway, I dug out the digital file and it's now online, enjoy! youtu.be/VQjvic02S8M?...

I've always been fond of my own signed copy of All Souls, with post-reading message. In that it turned up secondhand, maybe Javier's prophecy was correct!

Auckland University Press now have an extract of long-awaited Craig Robertson's biography of Chris Knox — out this Thursday, 9 October! @audioculturenz.bsky.social aucklanduniversitypress.co.nz/chris-knox/?...

This morning, The Berliner began – against the will of its staff – posting a series of advertisements for the Nova Festival Exhibition. Our concerns having been dismissed and stonewalled, we have had no choice but to strike.

Nice: Javier Marías's Heart so White inscribed to John Le Carré
www.abebooks.com/signed-first...

Last night I finished reading Pip Adam’s AUDITION. It’s conceivably one of the best pieces of fiction — particularly science fiction — I’ve read in a few years. It’s transformative and heartbreaking and experimental. It’s about giants and space travel and incarceration.

you probably have a point there. The sentiment of Maxwell Perkins I very much agree with though!

British people: “The one thing I know about Germans is they are very efficient.”

Germans: “We understand your impatience, Herr Flynn. Your email has been printed out and will be handed to the responsible person soon.“

Late to this from Vince Czyz, but such a good view of @dan-sinnamon.bsky.social's "Big Fiction" from an aspiring author's perspective. Not whiny either...instead the simple conundrum of facing an industry whose "first allegiance [isn't] to talent" clereviewofbooks.com/the-age-of-c...

Emily and I were briefly in Healesville today so we popped into Healesville Sanctuary and it is very important for you all to know that they currently have BABY TASMANIAN DEVILS

guy unmatched me after I told him I’d never read any Ingeborg Bachmann

SOME OLD FUCKER JUST TOLD ME TO CHEER UP AND SMILE

yeah was going to quote that one too!

Some zingers here alright! (“His scrotum might be ornery, but his heart is in the right place”). And a subbie’s delight coming up with that header… www.theguardian.com/books/2025/o...