Read: The Age of Wonder by Holmes, Richard 📚British scientists and breakthroughs in the wider culture where they happened, from about 1760 to 1830. Sounds pedestrian but it’s rivetting storytelling. #books #readingcommunity #booksky

Read: Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. 📚Gleefully weird and Vonneguts gonna Vonnegut. He seems to slip under the ‘problematic’ radar with some of his language. He’s using it to making a point, but that doesn’t always stop the Bad Word Police. So it goes. #books #readingcommunity #booksky

Read: Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. 📚Very, very belatedly read this and remembered how weird and good Vonnegut is. Grim, black humour and immensely readable. So it goes. #books #readingcommunity #booksky

Graham Greene made spy novels respectable, but he (probably) never stopped spying himself. I interviewed the director of the Graham Greene Festival about Greene’s writing, spying, and friendship with Kim Philby. #books #booksky #readingcommunity spybrary.com/graham-gr…

Quick question. What does ‘the privilege of my life’ actually mean?

Quick call out: Has anyone made a block list of ‘sanctimonious twats’? Could really do with one of those.

Why are there so many empty seats on centre court at #Wimbledon2026? There are huge blocks of them on the side opposite the umpire.

Read: Agent Sniper by Tim Tate 📚Real life Zelig-esque Polish spy/defector (and massive fantasist) in the Cold War, clearly written and researched. A good read.#booksky #books #reading

Pulp Asylum has just published my latest short story, The Man Who Said Too Much, which features an ice storm, stealing old chairs, and a Russian genius. Read it here: bit.ly/4y6ypBF #crime #thriller #amwriting #writingcommunity #writersky

Read: Autocracy, Inc. by Anne Applebaum 📚 on audiobook, which came out two years ago. So much of what @anneapplebaum.wsocial.eu says about countries run by greedy narcissistic bullies could now be said about the US. #booksky #books #reading

Read: Loitering with Intent by Muriel Spark 📚 One of those ‘how autobiographical is this?’ games about a struggling 1940s writer. Snarky and funny and far more tricksy than I expected. #reading #books #booksky

Burnham is another ‘swipe right’ prime minister. 6 months of highest ever approval ratings then people will notice he hasn’t solved any problems and he’ll have lowest ever approval figures and we’ll be onto the next one: Streeting, Rayner, whoever. And so it goes, to quote Kurt Vonnegut.

Read: The Pretender by Jo Harkin 📚Peasant Pretender puppeteered by powerful Plantagenet proponents. Wolf Hall minus the portentousness. #booksky #reading #books

Sidenote: I'd really appreciate it if you repost this, if only because getting the damn thing to display on Bsky with a decent alt text was something of a labour of love. And also because, obviously, I want everyone in the universe to know this is coming.

Nick Harkaway@nickharkaway.com · 2mo ago

3.

I'm not apathetic, I just don't care enought to spout opinions on BlueSky.

Read: London Falling by Patrick Radden Keefe 📚As in his ‘Say Nothing’, Keefe clearly disentangles a lot of complicated world views and confabulations to illuminate a particular world, though the overarching story isn’t as sharply defined. #reading #books #booksky

Read: The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt 📚Cormac McCarthy with a sense of humour and optimism, and also an editor, and all the more likeable for it. #books #reading #booksky

Read: Last One Out A Novel by Jane Harper 📚Her usual territory: resident returns to Australian small town and insular relationships (often between 3 male friends) which led to a tragedy a few years before. Realistic characters, well observed interactions, but nothing new. #booksky #reading #books

Read: Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland by Patrick Radden Keefe 📚Fantastically researched especially the bits the TV series smoothed over. You do wonder exactly why Adams hasn’t sued over the allegations it makes about him. #books #booksky #readingcommunity

Read: Pearl by Siân Hughes 📚Hughes is an award winning poet, and it shows, in a good way as her narator writes intensely and immersively about her mother’s death. As someone who felt no cause to grieve my own mother’s death, it was… informative. #books #booksky #readingcommunity

Read: Azincourt by Bernard Cornwell 📚Big, detailed, accurate and gruesome. Also a cracking story (though not exactly genre-expanding). Great for immersion… #booksky #books #readingcommunity

Read: Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It by Cory Doctorow 📚Freshman outrage at the shock of big companies being unscrupulous about how they make money. Nothing you can’t hear him perform any day of the week for free. #books #booksky #readingcommunity

Read: Agents of Innocence by David Ignatius 📚Drips realism and apparently the CIA uses it as an exemplar of Middle Eastern espionage. The detail draws you in and the conflicts between ethnicities and sects is tragically still relevant. #booksky #books #readingcommunity

The squid reached up and pulled the lever. The conveyor carried him out over the sea. They'd planned it all along. I hope "Squid Jigger" stays with you. 🦑 bit.ly/squidjigger #booksky #horror

The best horror makes you feel complicit. I wanted "Squid Jigger" to do that — by the final page, you understand why this happened. And you can't entirely disagree. bit.ly/squidjigger #booksky #horror

People complained that the printing press meant people wouldn't put in the effort to learn things off by heart.: https://matthewhurst.micro.blog/2026/05/05/people-complained-that-the-printing.html

Humboldt squid are pack hunters. They do coordinate. I just asked: what if they adapted to the ships harvesting them? My story "Squid Jigger" is the answer. bit.ly/squidjigger #booksky #horror

He was winched down onto a ghost ship in the dark, armed with a gun and his nerve. He didn't have enough of either. My story "Squid Jigger" — free and worth your time. bit.ly/squidjigger #booksky #horror

Read: Golden Hill by Francis Spufford 📚Dark smart pastiche of Fielding, Sterne, etc, in late 18th century New York, but there’s more to it than just quality fanfiction. The characters are ludicrously alive and you can smell the horse shit and ambition. #booksky #books #readingcommunity

The thing about great monster horror: the monster reflects something true. I hope what the squid represent in "Squid Jigger" sits uncomfortably with you. The ending earns it. bit.ly/squidjigger #booksky #horror