@john-self.bsky.social
Book jockey
@john-self.bsky.social PinnedF-shaped blurbs, seducing chatbots, nicking quotes off GoodReads and paying BookTokers: in today's Guardian I investigated the book world's tricks of the trade.
@john-self.bsky.socialReposted by @john-self.bsky.socialI completed my ‘Booker decades’ overview by writing about ten of the best long- and shortlisted novels from the 2010s - featuring memories from shortlisted authors and judges from the decade, inc Tan Twan Eng, Sunjeev Sahota and Robin Robertson:
@john-self.bsky.socialThe other four pieces are in this thread:
@john-self.bsky.socialYou forgot “folks”.
@john-self.bsky.socialIt's a measure of how bad I am at this game that I've just today discovered there's a special animation if you get them all right with no mistakes.
#Keywords > 13 October 2026
🎉 I found all 5 words - perfectly!
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@leahreich.comReposted by @john-self.bsky.socialAh yes, perhaps the most beloved literary trope of all: the classic McMuffin
@john-self.bsky.socialRetro rather than contemporaneous, but in Patrick McGrath’s Asylum, set in the 1950s, a middle-class dinner party serves curry as an exotic delicacy.
@john-self.bsky.socialPerhaps, though unlike Prophet Song, it was good! 👀
@john-self.bsky.socialYes it really is brilliant. I loved his last, This Plague of Souls, too.
@john-self.bsky.socialYes agree, and Sahota just keeps getting better. He should have won by now! No quibble re McCormack either.
@john-self.bsky.socialAnd he has a new book out in January!
@john-self.bsky.socialI completed my ‘Booker decades’ overview by writing about ten of the best long- and shortlisted novels from the 2010s - featuring memories from shortlisted authors and judges from the decade, inc Tan Twan Eng, Sunjeev Sahota and Robin Robertson:
@john-self.bsky.socialHaha. I was gutted when I scrolled up to see your result...
@john-self.bsky.socialParseword #258 ⚡️ 7s 💎 Perfect
@ianwaites.bsky.socialReposted by @john-self.bsky.socialAnother John Piper scarecrow photograph.
@john-self.bsky.socialIncredible softening and qualification ("suggest", "perception", "many", "might", "hoped") here by Chris Mason of poll results which consistently and clearly show - to quote the actual question - that a majority think it was wrong to leave the EU.
@john-self.bsky.socialMight I suggest “wistful yet optimistic”?
@john-self.bsky.socialAside from the graphics, those meaningless slogans are such a tell. “Good Food, Brighter Days”
@asls.org.ukReposted by @john-self.bsky.socialAgnes Owens: dame of darkly comic working-class stories
4 Nov @natlibscot.bsky.social – free
Explore the life & collections of Agnes Owens, & discover how her archive is being used to reappraise her legacy & secure her status as a major Scottish literary figure
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/agnes-owen...
@john-self.bsky.socialAnother good week begins! Parseword #257 ⏱️ 1m28s ⭐️ No Assists 💍 Secret Found
@gralefrit.bsky.socialReposted by @john-self.bsky.socialThat good news. I a supermarket from 1997 - 2008. Give pounds me.
