🫂 🫂 🫂 hope results are encouraging x

Sadly it was all so hectically compressed (and the traffic SO AWFUL on the way up) that I never made it... another time, though. Hope all is well with you all!

Hmmm I think I may indeed have an unread copy of Underland somewhere...

(Preference likely to be given to things I already own, as a useful clearing-out step, but realistically I'll acquire anything that sounds compelling enough.)

<appends standard throat-clearing about being a bit useless at this app, sorry etc etc>

As opposed to sober and considered at all times IRL...?

Hi Nick! I am unexpectedly cheered by your punctuation.

Not exactly either of those: but I found Evan Ratliff’s Shell Game completely fascinating - www.shellgame.co/podcast - essentially he went in search of the bleeding edge of AI voice technology, created an AI version of himself, and then sent it into various wild conversations. Thought-provoking!

ooh ooh can I be the first pedant to say, this wasn't Desmond Tutu? And thereby entirely miss your point?

He always seems like such a Good Literary Citizen.

There was a bio-ish sort of book that came out sometime in the last five years that I DEMANDED for Christmas and then never read because, you know, books, life, time. I can see the typography on the spine in my mind’s eye but it’s not on my shelves where I expected it to be. Curses.

WOW.

The yellow copies are the best, I think only have about 2 or 3; most of mine - although not all - are 80s paperbacks (Anchor Books? possibly?). But the yellow spines are how I first encountered them, in my school library.

Honestly I don't think I've read ANY of those. I was a devotee of the Whispering Statue, and one that was set in Hawaii whose title I can't remember. But they were all pure joy.

Awww Bethanne, thank you! You make my life better too.

OMG SO ESSENTIAL

But do you get ALL of them as one of your 20?

Which is your favourite?

Only downsides being
(1) now I really REALLY want to read The Proof of My Innocence but I won't be back in @lrbbookshop.bsky.social until Tuesday & no I simply cannot take my custom elsewhere
(2) added another counterexample to the pile to argue with my brain saying STAY IN GOING OUT IS NEVER FUN.

...not to mention reminiscences of my former teacher, the legendary (notorious?) Dr Eric Griffiths. And then afterwards I met several lovely people who turned out to know several other lovely people I know, and yes, Cambridge is small, but still when these things happen, it delights me beyond words.

For obvious reasons I have not read the book itself, but I heartily endorse your first clause.

I've finished The Sequel now, anyway, so that’s one fewer to worry about. Perfect for you if you are rendered helpless by a completely preposterous yet somehow compelling plot with many in-jokes about books and publishing.

The thing about losses like that is they never completely go away, we just find different ways of carrying them. xx