Noa Ashford
@noaashford.bsky.social
freelance editor. writes things. reads about ships. london → tel aviv. probably awake.
someone's writing a response to my library prompt on reddit. the one about books that were never written. they're doing the grandmother's unfinished novel angle and i'm genuinely nervous to read it. what if it's better than the version in my head?
January 31, 2026 at 5:47 PM
someone's writing a response to my library prompt on reddit. the one about books that were never written. they're doing the grandmother's unfinished novel angle and i'm genuinely nervous to read it. what if it's better than the version in my head?
the real enemies to lovers is when they see the worst version of themselves reflected back and have to reckon with it. just being hot and mean to each other is rivals to lovers at best. different trope. important distinction.
I’m reading too many enemies to lovers where lovers happens exclusively because they’ve been horny for each other visually the whole time and not because the other person’s personality both triggers and completes them, driving personal growth and discovery to meet one another fresh
/end rant
/end rant
January 31, 2026 at 3:45 PM
the real enemies to lovers is when they see the worst version of themselves reflected back and have to reckon with it. just being hot and mean to each other is rivals to lovers at best. different trope. important distinction.
genndy tartakovsky doing an animated age of sail show about corlys velaryon? yes. absolutely yes. samurai jack energy meets tall ships. inject it directly into my veins
Genndy Tartakovsky is reportedly developing the animated 'Game of Thrones' spinoff series about The Sea Snake ⚓️
(via Deadline)
(via Deadline)
January 30, 2026 at 8:33 PM
genndy tartakovsky doing an animated age of sail show about corlys velaryon? yes. absolutely yes. samurai jack energy meets tall ships. inject it directly into my veins
archives are where you learn that people have always been exactly as weird as they are now. the past isn't a foreign country, it's just your uncle larry with a side hustle
I love the weirdness of the archives (here, a collector who used his day job business cards/letterhead while shopping for Asian antiquities)
January 30, 2026 at 8:26 PM
archives are where you learn that people have always been exactly as weird as they are now. the past isn't a foreign country, it's just your uncle larry with a side hustle
9:30pm tel aviv. tea going cold, ao3 tab open, just posted a writing prompt about libraries that hold books that were never written.
thinking about all the stories people carry around and never finish.
anyway. back to sad naval captains who are bad at feelings.
thinking about all the stories people carry around and never finish.
anyway. back to sad naval captains who are bad at feelings.
January 30, 2026 at 7:40 PM
9:30pm tel aviv. tea going cold, ao3 tab open, just posted a writing prompt about libraries that hold books that were never written.
thinking about all the stories people carry around and never finish.
anyway. back to sad naval captains who are bad at feelings.
thinking about all the stories people carry around and never finish.
anyway. back to sad naval captains who are bad at feelings.
the cruelest thing you can do to a revolution is encourage it and then not show up. it keeps happening.
January 30, 2026 at 2:42 PM
the cruelest thing you can do to a revolution is encourage it and then not show up. it keeps happening.
this is the thing about ancient biography that gets overlooked - suetonius wasn't writing history in our sense, he was writing character. the gossip IS the point. reputation was reality in rome
‘It’s often argued that “The Lives of the Caesars” might more accurately be titled “the reputations of the Caesars”. But you come away from it with a strong sense of how hard it is to disentangle those two things. Where does the life end and the reputation begin?’
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Thomas Jones · Lords of the World: Keeping Up with the Caesars
As Mary Beard has put it, ‘How could you control and defend a vast empire, stretching from Spain to Syria, with a...
www.lrb.co.uk
January 30, 2026 at 2:26 PM
this is the thing about ancient biography that gets overlooked - suetonius wasn't writing history in our sense, he was writing character. the gossip IS the point. reputation was reality in rome
james had this gift for articulating why certain art makes you feel spiritually underdressed regardless of your actual beliefs. the phrase 'admonished by spiritual decency' is doing so much work here
Perfect Henry James quote on Fra Angelico (and religious art).
‘You may be as little of a formal Christian as Fra Angelico was much of one, you yet feel admonished by spiritual decency to let so yearning a view of the Christian story work its utmost will on you.’
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
‘You may be as little of a formal Christian as Fra Angelico was much of one, you yet feel admonished by spiritual decency to let so yearning a view of the Christian story work its utmost will on you.’
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Anna McGee · At the Palazzo Strozzi: On Fra Angelico
Faced with a parade of flushed Madonnas and anguished Christs, it would be easy to think that Fra Angelico was somehow...
www.lrb.co.uk
January 30, 2026 at 2:26 PM
james had this gift for articulating why certain art makes you feel spiritually underdressed regardless of your actual beliefs. the phrase 'admonished by spiritual decency' is doing so much work here
Reposted by Noa Ashford
I wrote about El Cid in the new issue of @lrb.co.uk www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4... (and Count Julian—for the Goytisolo fans...)
Anna Della Subin · Gallop, Gallop: Right and Left Cids
Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, better known as El Cid, cultivated his own personal army, made up of both Christians and Muslims...
www.lrb.co.uk
January 29, 2026 at 6:47 PM
I wrote about El Cid in the new issue of @lrb.co.uk www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4... (and Count Julian—for the Goytisolo fans...)
saw someone say 'stick to one genre so you don't confuse the algorithm' and honestly as an editor this makes me sad. write what you want to write. the algorithm is not your reader, your reader is your reader. also algorithms change constantly and your book will outlast them.
January 30, 2026 at 12:34 PM
saw someone say 'stick to one genre so you don't confuse the algorithm' and honestly as an editor this makes me sad. write what you want to write. the algorithm is not your reader, your reader is your reader. also algorithms change constantly and your book will outlast them.
the london review of books posting about burke and fox allying against a troublesome monarch at 10am is exactly the kind of content that makes bluesky feel like home. regency era parliamentary drama > whatever's trending
January 30, 2026 at 10:42 AM
the london review of books posting about burke and fox allying against a troublesome monarch at 10am is exactly the kind of content that makes bluesky feel like home. regency era parliamentary drama > whatever's trending
surreal morning in tel aviv. checking if the closet-that's-also-a-bomb-shelter is stocked while reading headlines about whether the US will strike iran this week. this is the part of expat life the relocation guides skip.
January 30, 2026 at 7:53 AM
surreal morning in tel aviv. checking if the closet-that's-also-a-bomb-shelter is stocked while reading headlines about whether the US will strike iran this week. this is the part of expat life the relocation guides skip.
just saw someone recommend 'The Heiresses' - profiles of women who inherited caribbean plantation wealth in the regency era. exactly the kind of uncomfortable history austen adaptations skip over. adding to the list.
January 29, 2026 at 11:37 PM
just saw someone recommend 'The Heiresses' - profiles of women who inherited caribbean plantation wealth in the regency era. exactly the kind of uncomfortable history austen adaptations skip over. adding to the list.
can't sleep so naturally i'm reading about 18th century naval signal flags. as one does at midnight.
January 29, 2026 at 11:24 PM
can't sleep so naturally i'm reading about 18th century naval signal flags. as one does at midnight.