Petra Clark
@petrabclark.bsky.social
Special Collections Librarian, former/forever Victorianist (Aestheticism & periodicals), and inveterate cat documentarian. Probably haunting the rare books stacks or stress baking. She/her
the ideal academic life is being an eccentric Victorian lord. Invent a stamp licking machine at 22. Get elected to the Royal Academy for counting the beetles on your estate. Die in an arsenic explosion. The perfect life.
Where else could I have seen things that terrified me as a child AND had a formative influence on what I love as an adult?
Masterpiece Theatre Edward Gorey Intro
Alt: Masterpiece Theatre Edward Gorey Intro : a black an white animation zooms in on a headstone with a winking skull on it, which transitions to a man's body lying in a library.
static.klipy.com
Natania Barron ~ Fantasy Author@natania.bsky.social · 3w agoSome of you weren’t raised by PBS, and it shows.
Margaret Atwood T. Kingfisher Zadie Smith Ruth Ware Kazuo Ishiguro (Making this list made me realize there are a few writers I thought I had read more of--and need to!)
Noah Berlatsky@nberlat.bsky.social · 4w agofive living writers that you've read five books by each Rita Dove Tasha Suri Courtney Milan Grant Morrison Tom Perrotta
📢 Once more for the people in the back: - Most [more than 95%] of archives have not been digitized. - Most of humanity's knowledge and memory is *not* reachable by LLMs. - Believing that AI can provid you with comprehensive, definitive, "intelligent" results is folly.
Jesse Locker@jessemlocker.bsky.social · 3w agoGiving myself a headache in the archives
This remains one of my favorite picture sets of Billie. 🤣
We've now passed 36 hours of Verizon service outage (so no wifi or tv all weekend), but I've done a lot of reading, baking, cooking, and coloring instead. Billie has been "helping."
I did a lot of sweaty yardwork earlier today so now I'm rewarding myself with Tinto de Verano and Dungeon Crawler Carl.
My mom bought me this pretty lantana plant before I left New York and the Delaware butterflies have already found it!
Every time I go home to upstate New York, I remember how lucky I was to grow up somewhere so beautiful. 💚
Witnessed a first in my neighborhood this morning: a honk-off on opposing rooftops.
Witnessed a first in my neighborhood this morning: a honk-off on opposing rooftops.
I've been a fan of Jenny Lawson for over a decade, so it was truly amazing to be at this event last night! (Iggy also approves of the new book). 🩵
The bloggess (Jenny Lawson)@thebloggess.bsky.social · 4mo agoTonight was the early launch of HOW TO BE OKAY WHEN NOTHING IS OKAY and I don’t have the right words.
It brings me great pleasure to inform you the word "blurb" is named after a made-up woman named Belinda Blurb whose job is to tell everyone how great a book is
![The word blurb was coined in 1906 by American humorist Gelett Burgess (1866–1951).[2] The October 1906 first edition of his short book Are You a Bromide? was presented in a limited edition to an annual trade association dinner. The custom at such events was to have a dust jacket promoting the work and with, as Burgess' publisher B. W. Huebsch described it, "the picture of a damsel—languishing, heroic, or coquettish—anyhow, a damsel on the jacket of every novel".
In this case, the jacket proclaimed "YES, this is a 'BLURB'!" and the picture was of a (fictitious) young woman "Miss Belinda Blurb" shown calling out, described as "in the act of blurbing." The name and term stuck for any publisher's contents on a book's back cover, even after the picture was dropped and only the text remained.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:xymlowc32o3pc6g2xalek4s4/bafkreieugzwvjwchmqn4y6jhr5isznq6q4vfsnsbbafxht75qgxmumchaa)
I was just eating lunch outside and a car drove by with the windows rolled down blasting a traditional rendition of "Wild Mountain Thyme."
All in all, not a terrible way to spend a Sunday night.
All in all, not a terrible way to spend a Sunday night.
This little creature doesn't know anything about what's happening in the world, but he does know when I'm overwhelmed by it all and tries his best to help. 🖤
Guess who spectacularly wiped out on the ice this morning and had to get two stitches on her elbow? 🤕 At least Billie is a very good nurse!
Our main aim was to see the special exhibition "Paws on Parchment" before it closed, but there were plenty of other cats to love elsewhere in the collection too! 🐈⬛ thewalters.org/exhibitions/...
Petra Clark@petrabclark.bsky.social · 6mo agoThere's nothing like a museum excursion to cheer up a rainy weekend. Yesterday's destination was The Walters Art Museum in Baltimore.
There's nothing like a museum excursion to cheer up a rainy weekend. Yesterday's destination was The Walters Art Museum in Baltimore.
Happy birthday to one of my favourite haters, Charles Darwin
CALL FOR PITCHES @dan-sinnamon.bsky.social and I are at work on a new version of Close Reading for the Twenty-First Century aimed at a more general audience. We’re looking for new contributions: your model close readings of texts, canonical and not, from literary studies and not. Details below!
Volunteer #librarians from around the world joined forces to build the Nancy Drew collection on Open Library—volunteering their time to organize series, verify editions, untangle authorship, and clean up metadata so anyone can discover these books. Learn more ➡️ blog.openlibrary.org/2026/01/30/a...
Billie staring directly into an explosion is a mood--probably this one.
Billie staring directly into an explosion is a mood--probably this one.
