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.
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.
No eye strain whatsoever.
November 19, 2025 at 9:32 AM
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.
No eye strain whatsoever.
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
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
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
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
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)
🖋️📚💙
Day 30: The Book You're Reading Right Now
"The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny" by Kiran Desai
(collage © Adrian Oțoiu)
🖋️📚💙
November 10, 2025 at 9:05 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)
🖋️📚💙
Day 30: The Book You're Reading Right Now
"The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny" by Kiran Desai
(collage © Adrian Oțoiu)
🖋️📚💙
🖋️📚
📚🖋️
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.
📚🖋️
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
🖋️📚
📚🖋️
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.
📚🖋️
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.
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)
🖋️📚💙
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)
🖋️📚💙
November 8, 2025 at 9:54 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)
🖋️📚💙
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)
🖋️📚💙
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:
Here's a collage-homage I made for him earlier this year:
October 12, 2025 at 2:19 PM
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:
Here's a collage-homage I made for him earlier this year:
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:
Here's a collage-homage I made for him earlier this year:
October 12, 2025 at 2:15 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:
Here's a collage-homage I made for him earlier this year:
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)
🖋️📚💙
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)
🖋️📚💙
August 6, 2025 at 8:26 AM
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)
🖋️📚💙
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)
🖋️📚💙
v.2, some tinkering with the collage...
August 4, 2025 at 10:09 AM
v.2, some tinkering with the collage...
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)
🖋️📚💙
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)
🖋️📚💙
August 4, 2025 at 9:54 AM
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)
🖋️📚💙
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)
🖋️📚💙
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)
🖋️📚💙
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)
🖋️📚💙
July 30, 2025 at 8:53 AM
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)
🖋️📚💙
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)
🖋️📚💙
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)
🖋️📚💙
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)
🖋️📚💙
July 29, 2025 at 11:59 AM
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)
🖋️📚💙
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)
🖋️📚💙
Same issue here. I too tend to draw the line at the end of the month and count the books.
(Which, of course, is ridiculous, as books should be left free to occupy our time, even if this means ”boiling over” the end of the month)
(Which, of course, is ridiculous, as books should be left free to occupy our time, even if this means ”boiling over” the end of the month)
July 29, 2025 at 11:17 AM
Same issue here. I too tend to draw the line at the end of the month and count the books.
(Which, of course, is ridiculous, as books should be left free to occupy our time, even if this means ”boiling over” the end of the month)
(Which, of course, is ridiculous, as books should be left free to occupy our time, even if this means ”boiling over” the end of the month)
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)
🖋️📚💙
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)
🖋️📚💙
July 28, 2025 at 11:56 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)
🖋️📚💙
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)
🖋️📚💙
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)
🖋️📚💙
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)
🖋️📚💙
July 25, 2025 at 12:16 PM
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)
🖋️📚💙
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)
🖋️📚💙
Can you spot the difference?
Which one do you prefer?
Which one do you prefer?
July 16, 2025 at 11:30 AM
Can you spot the difference?
Which one do you prefer?
Which one do you prefer?
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?
🖋️📚💙
bsky.app/profile/adri...
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?
🖋️📚💙
bsky.app/profile/adri...
July 16, 2025 at 11:25 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?
🖋️📚💙
bsky.app/profile/adri...
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?
🖋️📚💙
bsky.app/profile/adri...
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)
🖋️📚💙
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)
🖋️📚💙
July 16, 2025 at 10:25 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)
🖋️📚💙
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)
🖋️📚💙
Among the names here, many poets writing in English: Conrad Aiken, W.H. Auden, e e cummings, Emily Dickinson, T.S. Eliot, Robert Frost, Langston Hughes, Ezra Pound, Carl Sandburg, Wallace Stevens, Dylan Thomas, William Carlos Williams...
Take the word ”contemporary” in the frame of the 1960s-70s!
Take the word ”contemporary” in the frame of the 1960s-70s!
July 14, 2025 at 7:14 PM
Among the names here, many poets writing in English: Conrad Aiken, W.H. Auden, e e cummings, Emily Dickinson, T.S. Eliot, Robert Frost, Langston Hughes, Ezra Pound, Carl Sandburg, Wallace Stevens, Dylan Thomas, William Carlos Williams...
Take the word ”contemporary” in the frame of the 1960s-70s!
Take the word ”contemporary” in the frame of the 1960s-70s!
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)
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
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)
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)
Eso es triste. Con...
July 14, 2025 at 10:35 AM
Eso es triste. Con...
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)
🖋️📚💙
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)
🖋️📚💙
July 13, 2025 at 11:02 AM
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)
🖋️📚💙
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)
🖋️📚💙
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)
🖋️📚💙
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)
🖋️📚💙
July 13, 2025 at 10:45 AM
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)
🖋️📚💙
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)
🖋️📚💙
This looks very useful.
After looking into several apps, I ended up with Handy Library. The sale points for me:
- customizable tags & categories;
- book details upon scanning the barcode*;
- shelves I can define;
- book cover can be added by either taking a picture of it or by scanning the barcode.
After looking into several apps, I ended up with Handy Library. The sale points for me:
- customizable tags & categories;
- book details upon scanning the barcode*;
- shelves I can define;
- book cover can be added by either taking a picture of it or by scanning the barcode.
July 13, 2025 at 8:55 AM
This looks very useful.
After looking into several apps, I ended up with Handy Library. The sale points for me:
- customizable tags & categories;
- book details upon scanning the barcode*;
- shelves I can define;
- book cover can be added by either taking a picture of it or by scanning the barcode.
After looking into several apps, I ended up with Handy Library. The sale points for me:
- customizable tags & categories;
- book details upon scanning the barcode*;
- shelves I can define;
- book cover can be added by either taking a picture of it or by scanning the barcode.
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 ↓
🖋️📚💙
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 ↓
🖋️📚💙
April 14, 2025 at 9:11 AM
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 ↓
🖋️📚💙
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 ↓
🖋️📚💙