Jan Hicks
banner
dustystacks.bsky.social
Jan Hicks
@dustystacks.bsky.social
Archivist. Book reader. Persistent.

I write down my thoughts about books here https://thinkaboutreading.wordpress.com/

I write other things here https://thesiftingwell.wordpress.com/
I especially like how the tiny Queen Elizabeth's Hunting Lodge inside the actual Queen Elizabeth's Hunting Lodge adds not even a mite of creepiness.
October 28, 2025 at 9:55 AM
I like Epping Forest and Connaught Water
October 28, 2025 at 9:55 AM
I had a flexi day off today. We went to see the autumn colours at Dunham Massey this afternoon. The trees and the kitchen garden cooperated nicely.
October 20, 2025 at 5:30 PM
It's a grey, damp day, I'm reading Local Haunts by Adam Scovell and his essay about Alderley Edge has sent me back to our most recent visit on a similarly grey, damp day.
#AlderleyEdge #AlanGarner #WierdstoneCountry
October 20, 2025 at 10:15 AM
2.5 months ago, while assembling some boltless shelving at work with an inadequate camping mallet, I clobbered a finger. Like the rings on a tree, my finger nail tells the story.
#HumanBiology #FingerNail
October 20, 2025 at 10:03 AM
In the mid-80s, before scanning and the internet, it was possible to copy the album by hand into a school exercise book. That's how the unofficial UK pressing came about.
October 20, 2025 at 8:25 AM
At the end of this week we packed 663 volumes onto 11 pallets at the off-site store and reshelved them in the new store. Pictured are the Rate Books which measure roughly 55cmx60cmx5cm and weigh up to 10kg each. I'm glad I had the DeepStore team's help!
#archives #collectionsmove
October 4, 2025 at 7:35 AM
Work news: we had our Open Day today and the Mayor of Oldham cut a ribbon to declare us open, before stopping to chat to visitors. We had #archives, #maps and #photographs out for visitors to browse and I ran tours of the archives store.
September 27, 2025 at 4:59 PM
Two hours and twenty miles separate these photographs.
Oldham 4.30pm
Stretford 6.30pm
#TheSky #clouds
September 9, 2025 at 6:20 PM
Hush now, I'm going to be reading. I've retrieved
@dj-acid-reflux.bsky.social's new novel from the neighbours'.
#BookSky #EWSY
September 9, 2025 at 4:46 PM
@dj-acid-reflux.bsky.social's new novel Everything Will Swallow You is trapped in my neighbours' house and they've gone out, so now I have to wait before I can dive in, like I'm an adult who understands deferred gratification, or something.
#BookSky #EWSY #AbsoluteScenes
September 8, 2025 at 5:51 PM
Oh!
I've been waiting for this for a long time and now it's almost here.
@dj-acid-reflux.bsky.social
September 5, 2025 at 9:59 PM
Sapphire/Sapphy/Inspector Sapphy of the Back Yard/Duchess of Chatterton/Chatsworth/The Chatsworth House/Chat Show/Sapphy Longlegs/Longlegs/Legs/Sapphychops/Chops/Peep/Gary/The New Shmoo/Sappha Nadal/The Sapphinator/Maud
September 4, 2025 at 7:04 PM
8. The display about the removal of the Edward Colston statue in Bristol in 2020, part of the exhibits about Bristol's radical activist history at M Shed.
September 1, 2025 at 6:02 PM
7. GRIOT interventions in the exhibits about Bristol's involvement in the trafficking of enslaved people from Africa to the Caribbean and Americas at M Shed.
September 1, 2025 at 6:02 PM
6. Castle Bridge at night
September 1, 2025 at 6:02 PM
5. Art at the Arnolfini
September 1, 2025 at 6:02 PM
4. A seagull on the head of William III in Queens Park.
September 1, 2025 at 6:02 PM
3. Defunct gubbins inside the Redcliffe Bascule Bridge control room.
September 1, 2025 at 6:02 PM
2. The Granary on Welsh Back
September 1, 2025 at 6:02 PM
Top things from a few days in #Bristol: A Thread
1. Massive Attack on the Avon
September 1, 2025 at 6:02 PM
We were away for a few days. Alt text describes how this moment of peace came to be.
#SapphireDuchessOfChatterton #TheChatsworthHouse
September 1, 2025 at 4:10 PM
Two glorious items I have received as gifts bought by Mr Hicks from @raremags.bsky.social. I have other examples, but these are my favourites.
August 15, 2025 at 11:31 AM
What the actual fuck? That CEO was Dan Kieran who is apparently sorry that all this has happened, according to a statement in this Observer article observer.co.uk/news/busines...
August 9, 2025 at 11:54 AM
As a supporter, that change meant I lost access to info about books I'd pledged for pre-2023, including e-book downloads. There was no warning about that loss of access. My theory now: they were moving towards a focus on tech. AI and gaming were mentioned in the viability statement in March 2025.
August 9, 2025 at 11:27 AM