Brendan
@brendanbe.bsky.social
I enjoy good books and good shitposts. I don’t post much.
Pinned
Brendan
@brendanbe.bsky.social
· Dec 31
A somewhat @backlisted.bsky.social - inflected selection of my favorite books of 2024. I finished only 41 this year, but at least Middlemarch was one of them
Now seated at The 92nd St. Y and fanboying tf out (moderately!). Yakkin’ about William Maxwell, let’s go @backlisted.bsky.social
October 27, 2025 at 11:25 PM
Now seated at The 92nd St. Y and fanboying tf out (moderately!). Yakkin’ about William Maxwell, let’s go @backlisted.bsky.social
I usually wait till the weekend to listen, so I didn't know till yesterday that Backlisted is doing a live show at 92NY in October (!!!)
I metaphorically jumped on those tickets, & it's a good thing this is the internet because I might have physically shoved people out of the way for them
I metaphorically jumped on those tickets, & it's a good thing this is the internet because I might have physically shoved people out of the way for them
New episode up now. A Taste of Honey by Shelagh Delaney, with guests Dave Haslam and Melanie Williams in conversation with Andy Miller, Una McCormack and Nicky Birch. @davehaslam.bsky.social @britfilmmelanie.bsky.social @unamccormack.bsky.social www.backlisted.fm/episodes/245...
245. A Taste of Honey by Shelagh Delaney — Backlisted
Dave Haslam and Melanie Williams join us to discuss A Taste of Honey (1958), Shelagh Delaney's first play, written and produced when the author was not yet 20 years old. To describe this as an ...
www.backlisted.fm
August 9, 2025 at 3:50 PM
I usually wait till the weekend to listen, so I didn't know till yesterday that Backlisted is doing a live show at 92NY in October (!!!)
I metaphorically jumped on those tickets, & it's a good thing this is the internet because I might have physically shoved people out of the way for them
I metaphorically jumped on those tickets, & it's a good thing this is the internet because I might have physically shoved people out of the way for them
Books bought/given* (left) and finished (right) in May
YTD: 18 read, 11 acquired
#booksky #litfic 🖋📚💙
(*thanks @poetrydaily.bsky.social for sending me Octavio Quintanilla's book)
YTD: 18 read, 11 acquired
#booksky #litfic 🖋📚💙
(*thanks @poetrydaily.bsky.social for sending me Octavio Quintanilla's book)
June 1, 2025 at 3:53 PM
Books bought/given* (left) and finished (right) in May
YTD: 18 read, 11 acquired
#booksky #litfic 🖋📚💙
(*thanks @poetrydaily.bsky.social for sending me Octavio Quintanilla's book)
YTD: 18 read, 11 acquired
#booksky #litfic 🖋📚💙
(*thanks @poetrydaily.bsky.social for sending me Octavio Quintanilla's book)
Very cool to be included in this feature by @poetrydaily.bsky.social, my favorite poetry newsletter, for writing 100 about Bert Meyers!
Our Readers on Poems from <em>Poetry Daily</em>
A collection of our readers' responses to their favorite poems from our archive.
poems.com
April 7, 2025 at 5:17 PM
Very cool to be included in this feature by @poetrydaily.bsky.social, my favorite poetry newsletter, for writing 100 about Bert Meyers!
Reposted by Brendan
First, heaven be the record to my speech
April 1, 2025 at 11:18 PM
First, heaven be the record to my speech
Elizabeth Bishop — even flipping through her collected poems at random to one of the less familiar ones, chances are you’ll find something astonishing and new. How great is this stanza (from “Song for the Rainy Season”)
#booksky 💙📚
#booksky 💙📚
March 22, 2025 at 12:18 AM
Elizabeth Bishop — even flipping through her collected poems at random to one of the less familiar ones, chances are you’ll find something astonishing and new. How great is this stanza (from “Song for the Rainy Season”)
#booksky 💙📚
#booksky 💙📚
Shakespeare news makes the Times #booksky 💙📚
Not Time’s Fool: A Rare Version of a Shakespeare Sonnet Is Discovered (Gift Article)
An Oxford researcher found a rare, handwritten variation of one of Shakespeare’s most famous love poems. About 400 years ago, its meaning might have been very different.
www.nytimes.com
March 4, 2025 at 11:34 PM
Shakespeare news makes the Times #booksky 💙📚
Books bought (left) and finished (right) in the first two months of 2025.
OLIO and ANGELS in particular are absolute masterpiece bangers that not enough people have read, and which you’d thank yourself for picking up
#booksky 📚💙
OLIO and ANGELS in particular are absolute masterpiece bangers that not enough people have read, and which you’d thank yourself for picking up
#booksky 📚💙
March 1, 2025 at 4:34 PM
Books bought (left) and finished (right) in the first two months of 2025.
OLIO and ANGELS in particular are absolute masterpiece bangers that not enough people have read, and which you’d thank yourself for picking up
#booksky 📚💙
OLIO and ANGELS in particular are absolute masterpiece bangers that not enough people have read, and which you’d thank yourself for picking up
#booksky 📚💙
Gift link to this very long (almost 5,500-word) NYT piece with way more detail and context than most of us probably want on how and why Elon Musk is putting thousands of civil servants out of work and killing people.
How Elon Musk Executed His Takeover of the Federal Bureaucracy (Gift Article)
The operation was driven with a frenetic focus by the billionaire, who channeled his resentment of regulatory oversight into a drastic overhaul of government agencies.
www.nytimes.com
February 28, 2025 at 3:16 PM
Gift link to this very long (almost 5,500-word) NYT piece with way more detail and context than most of us probably want on how and why Elon Musk is putting thousands of civil servants out of work and killing people.
Ladies and gentlemen, we can make this happen
Reading one (1) page of Middlemarch would kill the average tech executive
February 18, 2025 at 6:55 PM
Ladies and gentlemen, we can make this happen
Obsessed with this 1st ed. of Richard Wilbur’s second book (pub. 1950) that I got for $15 in Boston last summer. It seems to have been once owned by Barbara Swan, who did Wilbur’s portrait sketch and also collaborated with Anne Sexton and Maxine Kumin. I want to know who “Bill” was, though
#booksky
#booksky
February 7, 2025 at 12:55 AM
Obsessed with this 1st ed. of Richard Wilbur’s second book (pub. 1950) that I got for $15 in Boston last summer. It seems to have been once owned by Barbara Swan, who did Wilbur’s portrait sketch and also collaborated with Anne Sexton and Maxine Kumin. I want to know who “Bill” was, though
#booksky
#booksky
February 6, 2025 at 1:49 AM
Reposted by Brendan
Dude this is so fucking bleak; I know I’m naive but I still genuinely cannot believe we have people in the humanities normalizing this stuff
January 22, 2025 at 1:49 PM
Dude this is so fucking bleak; I know I’m naive but I still genuinely cannot believe we have people in the humanities normalizing this stuff
Reposted by Brendan
We are living in the dumbest possible timeline.
She Is in Love With ChatGPT (Gift Article)
A 28-year-old woman with a busy social life spends hours on end talking to her A.I. boyfriend for advice and consolation. And yes, they do have sex.
www.nytimes.com
January 15, 2025 at 6:34 PM
We are living in the dumbest possible timeline.
A somewhat @backlisted.bsky.social - inflected selection of my favorite books of 2024. I finished only 41 this year, but at least Middlemarch was one of them
December 31, 2024 at 8:57 PM
A somewhat @backlisted.bsky.social - inflected selection of my favorite books of 2024. I finished only 41 this year, but at least Middlemarch was one of them
Reposted by Brendan
It is with a very heavy heart that I share the passing of the beautiful, talented, kind and loving Olivia Hussey on December 27. One of the loveliest people I’ve ever known, let alone had the honor and pleasure to work with. Special condolences to daughter India Eisley and her partner David Eisley.
December 28, 2024 at 1:17 AM
It is with a very heavy heart that I share the passing of the beautiful, talented, kind and loving Olivia Hussey on December 27. One of the loveliest people I’ve ever known, let alone had the honor and pleasure to work with. Special condolences to daughter India Eisley and her partner David Eisley.
nothin’ but faith in nothin’ 🫡
I think the reason why the heart in a blender song still gets a lotta streams in 2024 is because everyone feels like their heart is in a blender
December 29, 2024 at 2:45 AM
nothin’ but faith in nothin’ 🫡
my one quibble with this post is those guys are the NYPD (and mayor Adams), not the feds
December 19, 2024 at 8:04 PM
my one quibble with this post is those guys are the NYPD (and mayor Adams), not the feds
Let’s normalize this
December 13, 2024 at 3:56 PM
Let’s normalize this