Labor Day working retail and still waiting for the Revolution
Brad Craft
@usedbuyer2point0.bsky.social
Long time bookseller, writes a little, draws a lot, reads aloud in public but not unannounced
John Forster, friend and first biographer to Dickens, wrote 700 pages of The Life and Adventures of Oliver Goldsmith, 1848, and now it’s mine. I
The @newyorktimeshaiku.bsky.social just called The Disappearers “a masterpiece.” Congratulations @marlonjames.bsky.social
This was my first ever book of essays, just met again after many decades. Hello old friend.
Sometimes heroes wear wigs. Dolly Parton. Rest in peace. Little sparrow, little sparrow Flies so high and feels no pain
“A writer is a foreign country.” I keep these for traveling. Marguerite Duras
She is a favorite; any form, any subject, any time, anywhere. Read Sigrid Nunez. It Will Come Back to You, from Riverhead Books
Commuter car concert today: original Broadway cast
Sexiest celebrity I ever met? Okay. Without hesitation. Quiet. Genuinely sweet man. Gorgeous. He smiled and I could not tell you a word that was said for the next three minutes. It was… whoa boy. Greg Louganis. #lgbtqia
Loving these #outsidereditions from Penguin Random House They are reissuing an eclectic selection of unjustly neglected classics, some of which I remember fondly and some I missed altogether at the time like Han Ong’s Fixer Chao.
Adventures in aging gracelessly: had a whole conversation with the beloved husband about how odd it was that of all my summer nightshirts only this one didn’t have a breast pocket. Actually I’d worn it inside out for three days running.
The LGBTQIA elders who taught me to be my gay self
Smothered pork chops in mushroom gravy for supper. The beloved husband bought chops the size of Rhode Island. Had to cut one up to fit the pork on the plate!
Breakfast in the balcony with the very last of The Musketeers . Joyeux anniversaire à l'immirtal Dumas !
“But what is there about me I am so completely unaware of and which she summons me to know?” — Marguerite Duras, The Ravishing of Lol Stein, translated by Richard Seaver, for Pantheon Books #margueriteduras
Bought this today: The Places of Marguerite Duras, from Magic Hour Press translated by Alison Strayer. Originally published in 1977, interviews conducted by Michelle Porte. The film is available on YouTube. Duras is a place to which I return endlessly and with gratitude.
Marion Cunningham revised the Fannie Farmer Cookbook twice and produced the greatest American cookbook.
Delayed by a day, but birthday dinner was perfect. We will need second jobs to pay for the steaks though.
“Under his breath God reminded himself to be ‘crystal clear.’ Humans don’t respond well to oracular vague declarations — Eve ate poison, Samson stopped working out, Abraham just about cut his son’s fucking head off.” — Paige Lewis Paige Lewis, from Canon: A Novel, from Viking.
“We ought to wear mourning as a sign of civilization, a sign that we remember every man-made death of any kind, whether it took place in prison or in war.” — Marguerite Duras, Yann Andrea Steiner. Duras est immortelle ! #margueriteduras #quotes
It’s just a cake and ice cream kind of day. Two scoops. (Thanks, decorated British diver and OnlyFans model ((and I’m sure a fascinating and engaging conversationalist)) Jack Laugher MBE Jack Laugher.)
“Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to eat a peach?” — T.S. Eliot, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
My latest staff recommendation: if you want to understand the rhetoric and policy of the present administration — or the language of you latest employee review — start here: Free to Obey: How the Nazis Invented Modern Management, by Johann Chapoutot.
