Today, August 4, 2026, is the setting of Ray Bradbury’s short story “There Will Come Soft Rains” about a fully automated house continuing on after the family who lived there and the world around it died in a nuclear blast.
Mike Transreal
@miketransreal.bsky.social
Owner of Transreal Fiction SF & Fantasy bookshop in Edinburgh since 1997. I've not verified my age, so I can't use the Chat function.
Updated new title list for w/e 1st August 2026: transreal.wordpress.com/2026/07/31/t...
My missing boxes are due to be delivered today after all! Expect an update to my new title post once they're here...
Here's this week's rather late link for the new titles at Transreal Fiction: transreal.wordpress.com/2026/07/31/t... Ideally my late/missing boxes will arrive tomorrow, but I doubt it!
RIP Bill Oddie. peak post-Python comedy for a generation.
🇬🇧📺 Classic British TV 📺🇬🇧@classicbritishtv.bsky.social · last wk.Bill Oddie OBE (7 July 1941 – 25 July 2026) R.I.P
The legendary "walking bed" page from Winsor McCay's "Little Nemo in Slumberland" was published on July 26, 1908. If there’s a Mt. Rushmore for Sunday pages, this one is certainly on it.
M. John Harrison (1945-) was born on this day. Bibliography: www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.c... L, Michael Whelan, 1982; R, Peter Jones, 1975 #scifi #sciencefiction #books
@studioknotunknot.bsky.social ambient do-nut from 1967!
Vintage Obscura Radio@vintageobscura.net · 2w agoCrocheted Doughnut Ring – Nice [UK, Psych/Experimental] (1967) – Anachronistic ambient song deemed ‘too far out’ at the time. Later sampled by Burial https://redd.it/985a9z https://youtu.be/PHakxUVEceU
China eats lightning for breakfast...
China Space Watch@chinaspace.bsky.social · 2w agoMore footage of the lightning strike launch! 🌩️ China's Long March 3B rocket was struck by lightning shortly after liftoff from Xichang, yet continued its mission without issue, successfully placing the Tianlian-2 06 communications relay satellite into orbit.
Here's this week's link to the new titles at Transreal Fiction: transreal.wordpress.com/2026/07/24/t...
Here's this week's link to the new titles at Transreal Fiction: transreal.wordpress.com/2026/07/17/t...
I loved Sam Neill’s films, but the one I loved most - unmentioned here - is Dean Spanley, in which he plays a spaniel reincarnated as a Church of England cleric; it’s based on a wonderful but little-known novella by Lord Dunsany. Watch it if you can find it!
The Guardian@theguardian.com · 3w agoSam Neill, star of Jurassic Park films, Peaky Blinders and The Piano, dies aged 78
This summer's most entertaining science fiction blockbuster is not in any cinema, it's going door-to-door in a small British seaside town. We'll be nominating "Count Binface's byelection campaign in Clacton-on-Sea" for a Hugo Award.
Bin it to Win it
Discussion of Hugo Award nominees for best novel, other science fiction novels, and analysis of the awards. We read all the nominees before we vote.
hugoclub.blogspot.com
fucking hate the arseholes who hide half-finished drinks in the shop rather than take them with them
Just been reminded that it's been 15 years to the day (well, it was Friday 1st July 2011) that I opened here on Candlemaker Row having moved from the old shop on Cowgatehead. Very glad I moved but the preceeding few months were very stressful!
Here's this week's link to the new titles at Transreal Fiction: transreal.wordpress.com?_gl=1*fra26w...
I know the seasons are getting a bit confused with climate change, but there's someone standing outside looking at stuff in my window carrying a Christmas Tree!!
Today is International Asteroid Day! ☄️ Why does the UN recognise this day on June 30? Anniversary of the 1908 Tunguska Event: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tungusk... Russia is no stranger to airburst events - in 2013, there was also the well-documented Chelyabinsk event en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chelyab...
International Asteroid Day | United Nations
International Asteroid Day aims to raise public awareness about the asteroid impact hazard and to inform the public about the crisis communication actions to be taken at the global level in case of a ...
un.org
2nd pipes and drums march today going past, as far as I can tell. There was one just before 11.00 and now another one on G4B. It's certainly silenced the busking piper and his drummer mate!
Here's this week's link to the new titles in at Transreal Fiction: transreal.wordpress.com/2026/06/26/t...
This week's link to the new titles at Transreal Fiction: transreal.wordpress.com/2026/06/19/t...
Subterranean Press announced that they'll be winding down their operations in the coming years. I'm sorry to see the news, and I spoke with a handful of authors who published through them, who pointed not only about the quality of the company's books, but of Bill Schafer's character as well.
Subterranean Press is winding down its operations
The publisher says that it intends to close down by the end of 2027 or early 2028
andrewliptak.com
Last interaction of the day: Guy comes in, stands in the middle of the shop and says loudly 'is it not boring working in a shop?' like he wants an argument. I say 'no' and continue what I'm doing. Guy wanders off again.
My mother, the inimitable Jane Yolen passed away this morning after a blessingly short fight with Alzheimer’s. She did not suffer, and went peacefully into the ether which, I am certain for her, will be filled with words of the most exquisite beauty and meaning.