Soothing coffee shop music: Pink Floyd, Is There Anybody Out There. Um.

A copy of The Recollections by Christopher Priest

Very excited to get my copy of the newest from @briardenebooks.bsky.social

At the risk of taking things too seriously, there's always this. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banach%...

Go every Saturday to the hot bath where you will see naked men.

From the Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci (Oxford University Press, trans Irma A Richter, p 369)

We can but hope.

Big question for the Oscars red carpet: what will Thomas Pynchon wear?

I do wish cookbook publishers wouldn’t get cheap with the indexing. Trying to find a kidney bean stew in the otherwise excellent Meera Sodha’s Dinner:

- nothing for “bean”
- or “kidney”
- “stew” says “see recipe name”, and honey, if I remembered the name I’d have done that

Flicking through it is 🤷‍♂️

Vaguely hoping that the Doctor Who missing episodes recovery will be followed by a Greek tragedy recovery. (“We found The Myrmidons by Aeschylus in a jumble sale in Thessaloniki.”)

(I would have nominated Guitar Shop if it weren’t for the two tracks with really bad/annoying vocal samples.)

What is the best “background soundtrack to work” record, and why is it Jeff Beck, There and Back?

That’s very kind!

Also: Locus is an absolutely invaluable piece of infrastructure in the sf field. Subscribe! subscribers.locusmag.com/subscribe

The nice people at @locusmag.bsky.social have put online my piece about the best sf & fantasy I read in 2025: locusmag.com/feature/the-...

UK publishers, ranked from “most to least likely to produce books whose pages quickly go brown and brittle”:

1) Faber & Faber

[….]

101-200: Literally everyone else.

my brain: Llamas on Chariots

Also: Face the Raven/Heaven Sent/Hell Bent > Heaven Sent/Hell Bent imho

I always assumed they were like an extremely late-stage Roman Empire. They had a couple of generations of putting their hegemony in place, then let themselves get…not-smart.

I think I got from you the description of bone marrow as “meat butter”. Which was presumably your grungecore band.

Perennially useful: wernerherzogvalentines.com

The Rose Field by Philip Pullman: Review by Graham Sleight The Rose Field, Philip Pullman (Knopf 978-0-59330-663-5, $29.99, 672pp, hc) October 2025. Cover by Chris Wormell. It’s been a long road to get here. Philip Pullman’s original His Dark Materials tri…

Read Graham Sleight’s review of THE ROSE FIELD by Philip Pullman: “Pullman’s gifts as a storyteller are fully present here.”

Typos for “Peter Capaldi vanished” and “between 2018-22”.

Surely if it were a Rogger Trap, the bag would also say “Beaujolais Flavour”?

Wonderful news!

Movie pitch: “The Sons of Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure”. Starring Connor Storrie & Hudson Williams.

Today’s weird hill to die on: _The Looking-Glass War_ is better than _The Spy Who Came In From The Cold_.

Phone use between sunset and sunrise should also:

-rapidly burn calories
-improve eyesight
-obviate the need to do household chores

Dream last night featured a deceased friend dropped into an everyday context. Deceased friend was marked out by wearing a white suit and shirt; I would like to reprimand my subconscious for making such a cliche costume choice.

This is important thought leadership.

Winter Solstice, Camelot Station by John M Ford.

A very happy Gauda Prime Day to all who celebrate!