Just reflecting on this with P - we had A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Ghost of Thomas Kempe, and Talking Heads is at least funny at times, if not actually fun, but yes, these moments are outweighed by every gruelling second spent on bloody Walkabout.

Nick Harkaway@nickharkaway.com · 2d ago

Having ranted about school curriculum books, I’ve just seen my son’s summer reading list, and all I can say is “I was right”. A more depressing collection would be tricky to assemble. Are we actively trying to convey to kids the idea that reading is dismal and arduous?

oh please let's play this, I miss these things!

Mo 🌸📚@moplayspoke.bsky.social · 2d ago

1 like = 1 book question 📚💙

since i have gathered all the Redwall freaks into my feed you should all be following this greatest of bots

Redwall Feasts Bot@redwallfeasts.bsky.social · 4d ago

I'd have a wedge of soft white cheese, the one with nuts in it, and one, no two, of Friar Furdle's fresh nutfarls, straight from the oven.

Nearing the end of The Two Towers, such has been my bedtime reading to Crow for most of this year, and Tolkien has just described some mountains as "white as the teeth of ghosts", which I do like very much indeed.

With the plus side that, what's more fun than talking books with your friends, colleagues, or randoms?! Word-of-mouth has also been by far the best way our little book box has gained new (and lasting!) subscribers: you cannot overestimate the value of a chatty mention for a small business.

Juliet E McKenna@julietemckenna.bsky.social · 2w ago

Word of mouth, personal recommendation, was the first and remains the best way for authors to reach new readers long-term. New readers helps us carry on writing new books for everyone.

Joyous read, a proper celebration of the art. We've been given zines at gigs a lot recently by kids who've clearly mastered the ancient art, and it just makes me SO happy, it really does.

The Guardian@theguardian.com · 3w ago

‘More real than anything you’ll see scrolling’: the radical resurgence of UK fanzines, 50 years after punk

Yay! @bookshop-org-uk.bsky.social now do audiobooks! uk.bookshop.org/audiobooks

This is such an important admission, discussion, reflection: good on @bonabooks.bsky.social for bringing this to the forefront.

Bona Books 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🤘🏼@bonabooks.bsky.social · 4w ago

AI fraud nearly derailed our next anthology. Today we’re talking about what went down, the things we missed, and publishing the report we wish we’d had when it happened. Read all about it on our new blog, and download the full report:

Well, this finds us at the absolutely perfect time - I always spend summer assuming I will kick my reading time up a gear, and often simply do not get around to it. But, not this year!

Naomi Alderman@naomialderman.bsky.social · last mo.

She’s here! Today is the start of this Couch to 5k for reading I’ve put together! Come and join us :-D open.substack.com/pub/naomiald...

new romantasy dedicated bookshop is opening in Oxford today and 10/10, no notes

referred to Florence and the Machine as Prudence and the Machine, which, I am clearly very tired

The American Library Association is auctioning off a bunch of the classic celebrity “READ” posters along with a bunch of other full sized literacy posters. This is going to fix so many of my problems, I just know it. movieposters.ha.com/c/search/res...

Inside me are two Edward Goreys

Amazing offers and opportunities within, go support paying humans a good rate for their creativity, imagination and artistry 💙📚🚀

Gautam Bhatia@gautambhatia88.bsky.social · 2mo ago

The Strange Horizons annual fund-drive is now live! Support us to continue publishing free, weekly, online SFFH fiction, poetry, art, and non-fiction for our 27th year! www.backerkit.com/c/users/3516... For new supporters - welcome aboard. For the regulars - you’ll notice something different. 🧵

*puts date in diary

Nick Harkaway@nickharkaway.com · 2mo ago

3.

Yesterday we had the wonderful pleasure of not only visiting @mrbsemporium.bsky.social - one of the finest bookshops in the world - but taking Prudence herself to see her name on the lovely reading bench in the children's book room. She had a great time, of course, and added lots to her #tbr list!

Yesterday we had the wonderful pleasure of not only visiting @mrbsemporium.bsky.social - one of the finest bookshops in the world - but taking Prudence herself to see her name on the lovely reading bench in the children's book room. She had a great time, of course, and added lots to her #tbr list!

Tuesday comic rec! charsiewspace.gumroad.com/l/xcvVQ "A stranger comes to town to find peace. A salesman comes to town to make a deal. And that’s when everything starts to unravel. Because if the devil’s not in the details, then the question is…where is he?" A wuxia x western mashup ❤️❤️❤️

MR MEMPHIS (Digital PDF Comic + Short Story)

A stranger comes to town to find peace. A salesman comes to town to make a deal. And that’s when everything starts to unravel. Because if the devil’s not in the details, then the question is… where is...

charsiewspace.gumroad.com

UK folks, let's jump on this AI regulation petition the Society of Authors emailed out! It's an actual parliament one so the government HAS to respond if it reaches the signature threshold. It calls for regulations to make AI developers disclose copyrighted works trained on. Sign & repost!! ❤️

Petition: Protect creators' rights: require AI firms to disclose training data

We ask the Government to introduce a statutory duty requiring AI developers to disclose the copyrighted works used to train generative AI in enough detail for creators to identify use of their work, e...

petition.parliament.uk

Fabulous call, and truly something to treat your ears to if you've not encountered it! Genuinely increased my enjoyment of Dickens, too, because now I hear the dialogue in a much more entertaining series of voices...

Victoria Redfern@victoriaredfern.bsky.social · 2mo ago

It's not on BBC Sounds, but I have found 'Bleak Expectations', one of my favourite ever radio comedies, which featured the wonderful Anthony Head as the evil villain Mr Gently Benevolent. archive.org/details/Blea...

(most of the books we rescued in their "final form" become books for me to read in the bath)

Watching Interior Design Masters and terrified that someone would make a sculpture out of book pages in HAY-ON-WYE. I remember one of the bookshops had decorated with, as we call them, "books in their final form" and they literally had to put an explanatory sign up as people were so freaked out.

*should

Simon Jones@simonjones.bsky.social · 2mo ago

This debacle could bring down The Guardian.

Small Planet is a new magazine devoted to speculative fiction in translation. The first issue has an article by me about SF&F in Welsh. I talk a bit about it here: www.cheryl-morgan.co...

Our Share of Night - Mariana Enriquez

Sophia_Nyx 🏳️‍⚧️@sophianyx.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Name a book you wish everyone would read.

oh my goodness new @emilymandel.bsky.social book is on the way the excitement is extremely lots here at PatC HQ

the sheer and terrifying volume of books this little place has made me (made me, I tell you!) buy...

Faine Greenwood@faineg.bsky.social · 3mo ago

It really is somewhere in between hilarious and deeply (if not at all surprisingly) embarrassing that book publishers still haven’t figured out that Bluesky is The Premiere Social Media Platform for People Who Actually Buy Lots of Books.

The book I read that was so good I bought everything else the author published (text in the graphic QPd) - Last Night in Montreal, by Emily St. John Mandel. Will forever immediately buy any book by this extremely "me and my favourites" author.

Rae Radford@raeradford.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Have you done this? If so, tell me the author's name. #BookSky

At one point, early on, I thought I would do a podcast about running a book subscription box, and recorded a few episodes, but then Buzzfeed featured us and things went a little wild for a few years, so they never saw the light of day. I might give them a listen back, though, and see how things were

Prudence and the Crow@prudenceandthecrow.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Watching someone's YouTube about running a bookshop in your 30's, and thinking about how Crow and I were 30 when we started PatC, and we are...a long way from that now. What is time?!

Watching someone's YouTube about running a bookshop in your 30's, and thinking about how Crow and I were 30 when we started PatC, and we are...a long way from that now. What is time?!