David Reader 🐳📚🐦
@thepaleusher.bsky.social
Constant reader, occasional writer living near San Diego
Pinned
Reposted by David Reader 🐳📚🐦
“we encounter a gale by the following morning, the wind in a great measure had gone down; the sea with it; and by noon we had repaired our damages as well as we could, and were sailing along as pleasantly as ever.” Chapter xvi, Omoo #MelvilleMonday #naturesky #naturephotography #winter #snowsky ❄️🐋
January 5, 2026 at 3:29 PM
“we encounter a gale by the following morning, the wind in a great measure had gone down; the sea with it; and by noon we had repaired our damages as well as we could, and were sailing along as pleasantly as ever.” Chapter xvi, Omoo #MelvilleMonday #naturesky #naturephotography #winter #snowsky ❄️🐋
Reposted by David Reader 🐳📚🐦
“A difficult, linguistically-innovative fever dream of a novel, which has been hailed as America's greatest contribution to world literature.”
#MelvilleMonday
Source: www.burnsiderarebooks.com/pages/books/...
#MelvilleMonday
Source: www.burnsiderarebooks.com/pages/books/...
![“First American edition of Melville's epic novel, in first issue binding and completely unrestored. In original gray cloth with publisher's device stamped in blind. xxiii, 635, [6 ads]. Very Good. Cloth lightly soiled and worn at the extremities, spine toned. Pages heavily foxed as common, owner details to front free endpaper, ink owner name to title page with offsetting to adjacent pages as well. Light, sporadic pencil notations to text, old unobtrusive tidemark to bottom margins…”
Image and excerpt: Burnside Rare Books.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:o4eyu7rdcj64qxpcvxbh7msi/bafkreifsyifw2pm4kz3xfpfwtpl5cdx453jn5an6y76mdcte26aqyv6faa@jpeg)
January 5, 2026 at 3:15 PM
“A difficult, linguistically-innovative fever dream of a novel, which has been hailed as America's greatest contribution to world literature.”
#MelvilleMonday
Source: www.burnsiderarebooks.com/pages/books/...
#MelvilleMonday
Source: www.burnsiderarebooks.com/pages/books/...
January 5, 2026 at 2:57 PM
Reposted by David Reader 🐳📚🐦
Happy #MelvilleMonday 🐳
„The anchor being secured, a steam tug-boat with a strong name, the Hercules, took hold of us; and away we went past the long line of shipping, and wharves, and warehouses; and rounded the green south point of the island where the Battery is, and passed Governor's Island,
1+
„The anchor being secured, a steam tug-boat with a strong name, the Hercules, took hold of us; and away we went past the long line of shipping, and wharves, and warehouses; and rounded the green south point of the island where the Battery is, and passed Governor's Island,
1+
January 5, 2026 at 8:20 AM
Happy #MelvilleMonday 🐳
„The anchor being secured, a steam tug-boat with a strong name, the Hercules, took hold of us; and away we went past the long line of shipping, and wharves, and warehouses; and rounded the green south point of the island where the Battery is, and passed Governor's Island,
1+
„The anchor being secured, a steam tug-boat with a strong name, the Hercules, took hold of us; and away we went past the long line of shipping, and wharves, and warehouses; and rounded the green south point of the island where the Battery is, and passed Governor's Island,
1+
Reposted by David Reader 🐳📚🐦
Reposted by David Reader 🐳📚🐦
“If this life of ours
Be a good glad thing, why should we make us merry
Because a year of it is gone? but Hope
Smiles from the threshold of the year to come,
Whispering 'it will be happier'...”
Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Be a good glad thing, why should we make us merry
Because a year of it is gone? but Hope
Smiles from the threshold of the year to come,
Whispering 'it will be happier'...”
Alfred, Lord Tennyson
January 5, 2026 at 2:45 PM
“If this life of ours
Be a good glad thing, why should we make us merry
Because a year of it is gone? but Hope
Smiles from the threshold of the year to come,
Whispering 'it will be happier'...”
Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Be a good glad thing, why should we make us merry
Because a year of it is gone? but Hope
Smiles from the threshold of the year to come,
Whispering 'it will be happier'...”
Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Caribbean moonrise
📷 by Beth
📷 by Beth
January 5, 2026 at 4:24 AM
Caribbean moonrise
📷 by Beth
📷 by Beth
Reposted by David Reader 🐳📚🐦
At sunset tonight, Western Gull flying in front of pink stratocumulus clouds over San Francisco Bay. Image taken facing Marin County from Emeryville, California.
#clouds #sky #nature #eastcoastkin
#clouds #sky #nature #eastcoastkin
January 5, 2026 at 1:38 AM
At sunset tonight, Western Gull flying in front of pink stratocumulus clouds over San Francisco Bay. Image taken facing Marin County from Emeryville, California.
#clouds #sky #nature #eastcoastkin
#clouds #sky #nature #eastcoastkin
There are few things more worrying than sitting up for somebody, especially if that somebody be at a party. You cannot help thinking how quickly time passes with them, which drags so heavily with you . . . (493)
Dickens
The Pickwick Papers
Dickens
The Pickwick Papers
January 5, 2026 at 2:29 AM
There are few things more worrying than sitting up for somebody, especially if that somebody be at a party. You cannot help thinking how quickly time passes with them, which drags so heavily with you . . . (493)
Dickens
The Pickwick Papers
Dickens
The Pickwick Papers
. . . but man, proud man,
Drest in a little brief authority,
Most ignorant of what he’s most assured . . .
Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven
As makes the angels weep;
#MeasureforMeasure_2026
Act II s2 (117-122)
Drest in a little brief authority,
Most ignorant of what he’s most assured . . .
Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven
As makes the angels weep;
#MeasureforMeasure_2026
Act II s2 (117-122)
January 4, 2026 at 4:31 PM
. . . but man, proud man,
Drest in a little brief authority,
Most ignorant of what he’s most assured . . .
Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven
As makes the angels weep;
#MeasureforMeasure_2026
Act II s2 (117-122)
Drest in a little brief authority,
Most ignorant of what he’s most assured . . .
Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven
As makes the angels weep;
#MeasureforMeasure_2026
Act II s2 (117-122)
Reposted by David Reader 🐳📚🐦
ISABELLA
So you must be the first that gives this sentence,
And he, that suffers. O, it is excellent
To have a giant's strength, but it is tyrannous
To use it like a giant.
#MeasureForMeasure_2026
II,2,107-110
#TheBard_ProblemPlays
The giants have divine power, but no divine wisdom …
So you must be the first that gives this sentence,
And he, that suffers. O, it is excellent
To have a giant's strength, but it is tyrannous
To use it like a giant.
#MeasureForMeasure_2026
II,2,107-110
#TheBard_ProblemPlays
The giants have divine power, but no divine wisdom …
January 4, 2026 at 7:38 AM
ISABELLA
So you must be the first that gives this sentence,
And he, that suffers. O, it is excellent
To have a giant's strength, but it is tyrannous
To use it like a giant.
#MeasureForMeasure_2026
II,2,107-110
#TheBard_ProblemPlays
The giants have divine power, but no divine wisdom …
So you must be the first that gives this sentence,
And he, that suffers. O, it is excellent
To have a giant's strength, but it is tyrannous
To use it like a giant.
#MeasureForMeasure_2026
II,2,107-110
#TheBard_ProblemPlays
The giants have divine power, but no divine wisdom …
Out on the roads the pilgrims sank down and fell over and died and the bleak and shrouded earth went trundling past the sun and returned again as trackless and as unremarked as the path of any nameless sisterworld in the ancient dark beyond.
#SundaySentence
Cormac McCarthy / The Road
#SundaySentence
Cormac McCarthy / The Road
January 4, 2026 at 3:07 PM
Out on the roads the pilgrims sank down and fell over and died and the bleak and shrouded earth went trundling past the sun and returned again as trackless and as unremarked as the path of any nameless sisterworld in the ancient dark beyond.
#SundaySentence
Cormac McCarthy / The Road
#SundaySentence
Cormac McCarthy / The Road
Reposted by David Reader 🐳📚🐦
Today's Sawkill, on a cold Saturday
January 3, 2026 at 8:05 PM
Today's Sawkill, on a cold Saturday
Then he placed his hands in his pockets and stood in the middle of the street alone, . . . and after several long minutes he once again became who he was, a solitary middle-aged man in the August of life looking for a few more Aprils . . .
James McBride
Deacon King Kong
James McBride
Deacon King Kong
January 3, 2026 at 8:27 PM
Then he placed his hands in his pockets and stood in the middle of the street alone, . . . and after several long minutes he once again became who he was, a solitary middle-aged man in the August of life looking for a few more Aprils . . .
James McBride
Deacon King Kong
James McBride
Deacon King Kong
Along the way
Rain-rinsed agave
Rain-rinsed agave
January 3, 2026 at 5:28 PM
Along the way
Rain-rinsed agave
Rain-rinsed agave
Reposted by David Reader 🐳📚🐦
ISABELLA.
No ceremony that to great ones 'longs,
Not the king's crown, nor the deputed sword,
The marshals truncheon, nor the judge's robe,
Become them with one half so good a grace
As mercy does.
Act II s1 #TheBard_ProblemPlays #MeasureforMeasure_2025 Bad luck? Being made an example in new govt?
No ceremony that to great ones 'longs,
Not the king's crown, nor the deputed sword,
The marshals truncheon, nor the judge's robe,
Become them with one half so good a grace
As mercy does.
Act II s1 #TheBard_ProblemPlays #MeasureforMeasure_2025 Bad luck? Being made an example in new govt?
January 3, 2026 at 2:40 PM
ISABELLA.
No ceremony that to great ones 'longs,
Not the king's crown, nor the deputed sword,
The marshals truncheon, nor the judge's robe,
Become them with one half so good a grace
As mercy does.
Act II s1 #TheBard_ProblemPlays #MeasureforMeasure_2025 Bad luck? Being made an example in new govt?
No ceremony that to great ones 'longs,
Not the king's crown, nor the deputed sword,
The marshals truncheon, nor the judge's robe,
Become them with one half so good a grace
As mercy does.
Act II s1 #TheBard_ProblemPlays #MeasureforMeasure_2025 Bad luck? Being made an example in new govt?
ISABELLA
Yes, I do think that you might pardon him,
And neither heaven nor man grieve at the mercy.
#MeasureforMeasure_2025
Act II s2 (49-50)
Yes, I do think that you might pardon him,
And neither heaven nor man grieve at the mercy.
#MeasureforMeasure_2025
Act II s2 (49-50)
January 3, 2026 at 4:20 PM
ISABELLA
Yes, I do think that you might pardon him,
And neither heaven nor man grieve at the mercy.
#MeasureforMeasure_2025
Act II s2 (49-50)
Yes, I do think that you might pardon him,
And neither heaven nor man grieve at the mercy.
#MeasureforMeasure_2025
Act II s2 (49-50)
Reposted by David Reader 🐳📚🐦
ISABELLA
I have a brother is condemn'd to die;
I do beseech you, let it be his fault,
And not my brother.
#MeasureForMeasure_2026
II,2,34-36
William Shakespeare
Arden London 1965
#TheBard_ProblemPlays
Mrs. Siddons in the character of Isabella, in ‚Measure for Measure‘
V&A
I have a brother is condemn'd to die;
I do beseech you, let it be his fault,
And not my brother.
#MeasureForMeasure_2026
II,2,34-36
William Shakespeare
Arden London 1965
#TheBard_ProblemPlays
Mrs. Siddons in the character of Isabella, in ‚Measure for Measure‘
V&A
January 3, 2026 at 9:40 AM
ISABELLA
I have a brother is condemn'd to die;
I do beseech you, let it be his fault,
And not my brother.
#MeasureForMeasure_2026
II,2,34-36
William Shakespeare
Arden London 1965
#TheBard_ProblemPlays
Mrs. Siddons in the character of Isabella, in ‚Measure for Measure‘
V&A
I have a brother is condemn'd to die;
I do beseech you, let it be his fault,
And not my brother.
#MeasureForMeasure_2026
II,2,34-36
William Shakespeare
Arden London 1965
#TheBard_ProblemPlays
Mrs. Siddons in the character of Isabella, in ‚Measure for Measure‘
V&A
I wondered how many people there were in the world who suffered, and continued to suffer, because they could not break out from their own web of shyness and reserve, and in their blindness and folly built up a great distorted wall in front of them that hid the truth. . . . [as] I had done.
Rebecca
Rebecca
January 2, 2026 at 7:51 PM
I wondered how many people there were in the world who suffered, and continued to suffer, because they could not break out from their own web of shyness and reserve, and in their blindness and folly built up a great distorted wall in front of them that hid the truth. . . . [as] I had done.
Rebecca
Rebecca
Reposted by David Reader 🐳📚🐦
Reposted by David Reader 🐳📚🐦
There is a secret bond between slowness and memory, between speed and forgetting.
[…]
The degree of slowness is directionally proportional to the intensity of memory. The degree of speed is directionally proportional to the intensity of forgetting.
Milan Kundera, Slowness
[…]
The degree of slowness is directionally proportional to the intensity of memory. The degree of speed is directionally proportional to the intensity of forgetting.
Milan Kundera, Slowness
January 2, 2026 at 2:59 PM
There is a secret bond between slowness and memory, between speed and forgetting.
[…]
The degree of slowness is directionally proportional to the intensity of memory. The degree of speed is directionally proportional to the intensity of forgetting.
Milan Kundera, Slowness
[…]
The degree of slowness is directionally proportional to the intensity of memory. The degree of speed is directionally proportional to the intensity of forgetting.
Milan Kundera, Slowness
Reposted by David Reader 🐳📚🐦
Cabo San Lucas, Mexico
#ocean #tranquility #waves #pacific #sealife #sunset #marinephotography #clouds #mexico #bahacalifornia #traveladdict #eastcoastkin #cityscape #urbangaze
#ocean #tranquility #waves #pacific #sealife #sunset #marinephotography #clouds #mexico #bahacalifornia #traveladdict #eastcoastkin #cityscape #urbangaze
January 2, 2026 at 3:32 PM
Cabo San Lucas, Mexico
#ocean #tranquility #waves #pacific #sealife #sunset #marinephotography #clouds #mexico #bahacalifornia #traveladdict #eastcoastkin #cityscape #urbangaze
#ocean #tranquility #waves #pacific #sealife #sunset #marinephotography #clouds #mexico #bahacalifornia #traveladdict #eastcoastkin #cityscape #urbangaze
Reposted by David Reader 🐳📚🐦
ESCALUS
Mercy is not itself, that oft looks so;
Pardon is still the nurse of second woe.
#MeasureForMeasure_2026
II,1,269-70
Arden
#TheBard_ProblemPlays
Angelo's House—Escalus, a Justice, Elbow, Froth, Clown, Officers, etc. (Shakespeare, Measure for Measure, Act 2, Scene 1)
The Met
Mercy is not itself, that oft looks so;
Pardon is still the nurse of second woe.
#MeasureForMeasure_2026
II,1,269-70
Arden
#TheBard_ProblemPlays
Angelo's House—Escalus, a Justice, Elbow, Froth, Clown, Officers, etc. (Shakespeare, Measure for Measure, Act 2, Scene 1)
The Met
January 2, 2026 at 7:37 AM
ESCALUS
Mercy is not itself, that oft looks so;
Pardon is still the nurse of second woe.
#MeasureForMeasure_2026
II,1,269-70
Arden
#TheBard_ProblemPlays
Angelo's House—Escalus, a Justice, Elbow, Froth, Clown, Officers, etc. (Shakespeare, Measure for Measure, Act 2, Scene 1)
The Met
Mercy is not itself, that oft looks so;
Pardon is still the nurse of second woe.
#MeasureForMeasure_2026
II,1,269-70
Arden
#TheBard_ProblemPlays
Angelo's House—Escalus, a Justice, Elbow, Froth, Clown, Officers, etc. (Shakespeare, Measure for Measure, Act 2, Scene 1)
The Met
Reposted by David Reader 🐳📚🐦
"For I have learned to look on nature, not as in the hour of thoughtless youth, but hearing oftentimes the still, sad music of humanity."
-William Wordsworth
-William Wordsworth
January 1, 2026 at 9:44 PM
"For I have learned to look on nature, not as in the hour of thoughtless youth, but hearing oftentimes the still, sad music of humanity."
-William Wordsworth
-William Wordsworth