A lone Canada goose stands at the peak of a brown roof, silhouetted again a pale gray sky.

Another Canada goose stands at the peak of a brown roof near a chimney, with tall conifers in the background.

Witnessed a first in my neighborhood this morning: a honk-off on opposing rooftops.

A lone Canada goose stands at the peak of a brown roof, silhouetted again a pale gray sky.

Another Canada goose stands at the peak of a brown roof near a chimney, with tall conifers in the background.

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 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.

The original Belinda Blurb

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

A vibe, honestly.

I was just eating lunch outside and a car drove by with the windows rolled down blasting a traditional rendition of "Wild Mountain Thyme."

A copy of Margaret Atwood's novel Alias Grace sits on table in front of a Moomin mug full of black tea and floral plate with two macarons on it, one raspberry and one pistachio.

All in all, not a terrible way to spend a Sunday night.

A copy of Margaret Atwood's novel Alias Grace sits on table in front of a Moomin mug full of black tea and floral plate with two macarons on it, one raspberry and one pistachio.

All in all, not a terrible way to spend a Sunday night.

HuffPost headline The underrated author to read if you love Jane Austen and Brontë

Hell yeah. Hot Gaskell Summer!!

Overhead shot of a fluffy black cat on someone's lap. He nestles against them and gazes upwards with big yellow eyes.

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. 🖤

A fluffy black cat lounges on a person's lap, ensconced on blankets.

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!

It was my first time visiting, but definitely won't be the last!

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/...

A 15th century manuscript page with a wide, beautifully decorated border featuring vivid flowers, fruits, a dog playing a trumpet, and a cat playing a keyboard.

A stained glass window by Kehinde Wiley featuring a young black man in contemporary clothing posed as a saint under a gothic arch and an intricately patterned green background.

Three Renaissance terracotta busts of Saints John, Mary, and Mary Magdalene, all with their heads tilted toward the viewer in lament.

A person stands in a small, high, ceilinged room lined floor to ceiling with wooden display cases containing a variety of artifacts. A line of portraits rim the upper railings.

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

Close Reading Is For Everyone Dan Sinykin and Johanna Winant Call for Pitches Based on our previous Close Reading for the Twenty-First Century, we are at work on a new version that’s shorter, slimmer, and aimed at a more general audience. We’re looking for a new set of contributors who would write excellent, brief, model close readings of texts that high schoolers might know and care about. Think: “The Gettysburg Address,” Macbeth, and Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave,” but also song lyrics, idioms, or even a visual image. What is your best, most instructive, most exciting, most welcoming example of how a close reading builds a real argument out from a tiny, perhaps overlooked detail? If you’re interested in pitching us, please send us your 250-word close reading of the text you propose. Your close reading should be mappable using our vocabulary of close reading: the five steps of scene setting, noticing, local claiming, regional argumentation, and global theorizing. (Our close reading of “The Red Wheelbarrow” in the early pages of our introduction is the sort of thing we’re seeking.) If we think we can use yours, we’ll ask you to expand it to a 1,200 word essay in which you explain how your close reading works step by step. We seek close readings both of texts that are canonical and also ones that aren’t. And so we invite contributors both from the discipline of literary studies, and other disciplines across the university, and the public humanities beyond it. Send your pitches—please include your name and contact info—to daniel.sinykin@emory.edu and jwinant@reed.edu by March 15.

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!

Gallery of dust jacket art for the first four Nancy Drew Mystery Stories books, published in 1930.

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...

A fluffy black cat sits on a tv stand facing a large tv which displays a bright red explosion.

Hellmo meme (a stricken-looking Elmo spreads his arms in front of rising flames)

Billie staring directly into an explosion is a mood--probably this one.

A fluffy black cat sits on a tv stand facing a large tv which displays a bright red explosion.

Hellmo meme (a stricken-looking Elmo spreads his arms in front of rising flames)

Billie staring directly into an explosion is a mood--probably this one.

My mother insists on vintage lametta tinsel for her tree!

A Christmas tree decorated with lit candles and old-fashioned tinsel sits in the corner of a dimly lit room lined with bookshelves.

A large black German shepherd, a medium-sized goldendoodle, and a small wirehaired dachshund sit behind a baby gate looking up expectantly.

🎄 Merry Christmas! 🎄

I think we need a mega thread of everyone's craziest archive stories.

I was a shy sophomore when I took a Black British Lit seminar & so intimidated by the brash prof & her high expectations that I nearly dropped after day 1. That class brought me out of my shell, introduced me to two of my fav contemp writers (Z. Smith & B. Evaristo), & Dr. Lima became a mentor. ❤️

A poster in a standee reads "Jane Austen Now: A Sarurday Symposium" and features a portrait of Austen next to a stack of books.

A first edition of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, vol 1 lies open to the title page with the other two volumes below it in an exhibit case.

A cookie with a black fondant silhouette of a Regency lady surrounded by a frame of white frosting sits next to a floral mug of tea and a navy and gold edition of Jane Austen: The Complete Novels.

Happy 250th birthday to Jane Austen!

From helping to run an Austen symposium at work to rereading Northanger Abbey for the last Gothic book club meeting of the year (and partaking in themed baked goods), my December has been devoted to Jane!

My statement on Ai from the mini-comic as syllabus i made for new class I'm teaching that starts tomorrow! It robs you of your decisions & struggles - and the joy of being surprised. We won’t to be robbed of our learning - this is essential. This & the full mini at post:
bsky.app/profile/nsou...

Red and white printed square handkerchief, designed to make you think you are looking at an untidy heap of printed papers: a playing card, a receipt, portrait engravings, a play, sheet music, positioned every which way.

Look at this excellent handkerchief from 1769 at the V & A museum: a showcase for #18thc practices of remediation. Made to imitate a quodlibet/medley print, a genre that itself aims to simulate, in a trompe l'oeil idiom, a scatter of small printed papers.
Imagine blowing your nose on that!
#scraps

Closeup of a theatre program for And Then There Were None featuring the silhouette of a hanging woman and a spooky house. Red velvet theatre seating a d a stahe made to took like a fancy living room is visible in the background.

Promo image from the 2025 film Frankenstein, featuring Oscar Isaac as Victor looking stern and pulling on red leather gloves. Jacob Elordi as the Creature looms behind him.

Theatre program for the Dracula ballet, featuring a swooning man with three women looming over him, set against a red background.

3 weekends, 3 spooky entertainments:

Yesterday, I saw Agatha Christie's "And Then There Were None" performed by UD's Resident Ensemble Players.
Last Sunday, I saw Guillermo Del Toro's amazing film "Frankenstein" on the big screen.
Two Sundays ago, I saw First State Ballet's rendition of "Dracula."

Minimal, high-contrast illustration of two figures moving along a sweeping path beneath a large moon and layered clouds.

Decorative garden scene in black and white: a robed figure with a long patterned train walks past a sundial, framed by an ornate pear-and-leaf border.

Stylized black-and-white scene of a poised figure with a flowing skirt beside an impish musician playing a long-necked instrument; bubbles and chandeliers accent the composition.

Black-and-white Art Nouveau illustration of three figures crowned with grape clusters and ivy, surrounded by vines in a high-contrast design.

Perverse, grotesque, sensuous, inimitable — our latest post gathers, in high resolution, a selection of 74 key works by the era-defining English illustrator Aubrey Beardsley (1872–98): publicdomainreview.org/collection/a...

And prints in our shop here: publicdomainreview.org/shop/fine-ar...

The English language trade dress cover for Junji Ito’s Frankenstein.

Junji Ito’s adaptation of Mary Shelley’s #Frankenstein was published in English in 2018 and won an Eisner Award for “Best Adaptation from Another Medium.” It’s both a faithful & idiosyncratic adaptation, showcasing Ito's mastery of horror storytelling within the comics medium.1/8 #Frankenstein

Bright chrysanthemums decorate Theo Nieuwenhuis' otherwise monochromatic design for November 1896. Fall is in full swing, but winter is close behind! 🍂