Adrian Oțoiu
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adrian-otoiu.bsky.social
Adrian Oțoiu
@adrian-otoiu.bsky.social
Award-winning writer. Sometimes also a translator. Associate Professor of English Literature(s). Keen taker and keeper of photos. Tentative traveler. Occasional caricaturist and meme maker.
Transylvania, Romania.
For those of you who keep complaining that ereaders ruin one's eyes as much as any other screen, here's what an ereader screen looks like with the frontlight (not backlight, like in tablets, mind you!) set to 0, nil, naught. And with a proper lamp conveniently placed.

No eye strain whatsoever.
November 19, 2025 at 9:32 AM
My reading of the Booker shortlist shy 200 pages of completion, here're my preferences:

1. The Loneliness of Sonia & Sunny -Kiran Desai
& The Land in Winter -Andrew Miller
2. Flashlight - Susan Choi
& Audition - K. Kitamura
3. The Rest of Our Lives - B Markovits
4. Flesh - D Szalay
November 10, 2025 at 9:31 PM
The 30-Day Book Challenge

Day 30: The Book You're Reading Right Now

"The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny" by Kiran Desai

(collage © Adrian Oțoiu)
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November 10, 2025 at 9:05 PM
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Challenge for myself this autumn: to read all the six books that made it to the shortlist for the Booker prize 2025. And to do that until November 10, the date when the winner is to be announced.

Here's the current situation: 5 books finished, and one last —the longest— still in progress.
November 8, 2025 at 10:23 AM
My long-due update to

The 30-Day Book Challenge

Day 29: Book Cover You Love

"Bluebeard" by Kurt Vonnegut

"Under the Volcano” by Malcolm Lowry

(the second is © Adrian Oțoiu)
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November 8, 2025 at 9:54 AM
Just learned that the Czech writer Ivan Klíma died. I read several of his books, from "Love and Garbage" to "My Golden Trades" & I loved his mix of realism and uncompromising critique of communism, his melancholic meditation and sweet irony.

Here's a collage-homage I made for him earlier this year:
October 12, 2025 at 2:19 PM
How sad! I read several of his books, from "Love and Garbage" to "My Golden Trades" and I loved his mix of realism and uncompromising critique of communism, alongside with his melancholic meditation and sweet irony.

Here's a collage-homage I made for him earlier this year:
October 12, 2025 at 2:15 PM
You you care about book covers and science fiction, this survey will be online for another two days:

bsky.app/profile/adri...
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Lovers of Sci Fi, you are invited to participate in a survey on your preferences. This consists of pairs of book covers to choose from. It all takes 10-15 minutes.

This way you will help a Publishing MA student's work on the dynamics of nowadays Sci Fi. Thanks!

docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
Science Fiction Reader Preferences Survey
You are invited to participate in a survey on science fiction reader preferences regarding science fiction preferences on book cover design. The survey is aimed at readers of science fiction books. Y...
docs.google.com
August 7, 2025 at 12:01 PM
30-Day Book Challenge

Day 28: Classic book you haven't read but plan to

"Women in Love" by D. H. Lawrence

Having read most of his books, this is top on my TBR list.

(Collage/homage © Adrian Oțoiu)
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August 6, 2025 at 8:26 AM
Reposted by Adrian Oțoiu
Besides favorite authors, beautiful book covers are my #autobuy 😍📚

What's your favorite book cover?

[🎨Graphic by Krysten Winkler]

#BookSky #BookCover #BookDesign #Illustration #BookLovers #CoverArt
August 5, 2025 at 1:53 PM
30-Day Book Challenge

Day 27: Book you read every year

"The Rose and the Ring" by William Makepeace Thackeray.

As we do this book in class, a memory refresh of this complicated quiproquo-ridden fairy tale is badly needed yearly.

(Collage/homage © Adrian Oțoiu)
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August 4, 2025 at 9:54 AM
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If you are into literary fiction, and you don't snub science fiction, and you care about cover design, here's a short survey to help an MA student assess the recent dynamics of the genre.

docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
Science Fiction Reader Preferences Survey
You are invited to participate in a survey on science fiction reader preferences regarding science fiction preferences on book cover design. The survey is aimed at readers of science fiction books. Y...
docs.google.com
July 31, 2025 at 4:43 PM
‪30-Day Book Challenge

Day 26: Biography everyone should read

"The Dream of the Celt" by Mario Vargas Llosa.
The life of Sir Roger Casement, colonial agent in the Congo turned human rights activist in Amazonia, Irish nationalist executed as traitor, gay icon.

(Collage/homage © Adrian Oțoiu)
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July 30, 2025 at 8:53 AM
🪐📚

Lovers of Sci Fi, you are invited to participate in a survey on your preferences. This consists of pairs of book covers to choose from. It all takes 10-15 minutes.

This way you will help a Publishing MA student's work on the dynamics of nowadays Sci Fi. Thanks!

docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
Science Fiction Reader Preferences Survey
You are invited to participate in a survey on science fiction reader preferences regarding science fiction preferences on book cover design. The survey is aimed at readers of science fiction books. Y...
docs.google.com
July 29, 2025 at 12:37 PM
30-Day Book Challenge

Day 25: A villain you actually loved

The unnamed General in Gabriel García Márquez's "The Autumn of the Patriarch"... I liked the unforgiving way this fictional dictator was constructed, but... love? no way! Too similar to those at home!

(Collage/homage © Adrian Oțoiu)

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July 29, 2025 at 11:59 AM
Reposted by Adrian Oțoiu
I think, as science-fiction authors, we can help to explain the misconceptions and misappropriations so often seen in regard to what is disingenuously named, "AI."

Here's my take.

#cyberpunk #scifibooks #booksky #sciencefiction #WritingCommunity #Indieauthor @sfwa.bsky.social
July 29, 2025 at 10:30 AM
30-Day Book Challenge

Day 24: A book collaboration by 2 or more authors

”The Woman in Red” [Femeia în roșu]
a multi-layered story of the Romanian-born mystery woman in red who turned gangster Dillinger in.
By Mircea Nedelciu, Adriana Babeți & Mircea Mihăieș

(Collage/homage © Adrian Oțoiu)

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July 28, 2025 at 11:56 AM
I'm still at it: 30 Day Book Challenge

Day 23: A book quote you know by heart

”The Past is a foreign country...”
from "The Go-Between" — L.P. Hartley (1953)

(Collage/homage © Adrian Oțoiu)

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July 25, 2025 at 12:16 PM
Can you spot the difference?
Which one do you prefer?
July 16, 2025 at 11:30 AM
Challenge interrupted: 30 Day Book..

Day 22: Love Story in an LGBTQ novel

”Oranges are Not the Only Fruit” & "Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?" — Jeannette Winterson

(Collage/homage v.2 © Adrian Oțoiu)

Can you guess how is this v.2 different from v.1 below?

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bsky.app/profile/adri...
July 16, 2025 at 11:25 AM
Reposted by Adrian Oțoiu
So, here’s my husband holding up his book - under the pen name Tudor Alexander, it is available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Bookshop.org, Carturesti.ro in Romania. If you love #literaryfiction , #mid-century #Historicalfiction and are curious about faraway places, come along.
July 15, 2025 at 7:09 PM
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Here's why for me, when it comes to audiobooks, it's only Nonfiction that will do:

bsky.app/profile/adri...
30 Day Book..

Day 19: Audiobook voice you like

Ex-aequo 3 non-fiction* books with a positive message:

”HumanKind” — Rutger Bregman
”Not the End of the World” — Hannah Ritchie
”Ultraprocessed people” — Chris von Tulleken

(Collage/homage © Adrian Oțoiu)

Why only non-fiction? See below ↓

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July 16, 2025 at 10:31 AM
Challenge interrupted: 30 Day Book..

Day 22: Love Story in an LGBTQ novel

”Oranges are Not the Only Fruit” & "Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?" — Jeannette Winterson

(Collage/homage © Adrian Oțoiu)

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July 16, 2025 at 10:25 AM
30 Day Book...

Day 21: Anthology You Love

”Panorama of World Contemporary Modern Poetry” — A.E. Baconsky.

This monumental anthology, published in 1972 by poet A.E. Baconsky (who died in the 1977 Bucharest earthquake) was the book that formed my taste for poetry.

(Collage/homage © Adrian Oțoiu)
July 14, 2025 at 7:08 PM
Challenge interrupted: 30 Day Book..

Day 20: Unreliable narrator

”The Butcher Boy” — Patrick McCabe*

*My photo of Patrick McCabe reading at the Flann O'Brien Conference in Dublin, 2019 © Adrian Oțoiu

(Collage/homage © Adrian Oțoiu)

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July 13, 2025 at 11:02 AM