Sam Byers
@sambyers.bsky.social
Author of Idiopathy, Perfidious Albion, and Come Join Our Disease
Hidden behind a piano, only actually visible for fleeting moments when he stood up to assure everyone he was there, but sounding wonderful, playing a beautiful, bluesy set ending with Every Grain of Sand. Fantastic.
November 14, 2025 at 11:44 AM
Hidden behind a piano, only actually visible for fleeting moments when he stood up to assure everyone he was there, but sounding wonderful, playing a beautiful, bluesy set ending with Every Grain of Sand. Fantastic.
Mesmerising, deeply moving stuff this.
November 9, 2025 at 12:51 PM
Mesmerising, deeply moving stuff this.
November 4, 2025 at 1:01 PM
Tell it like it is, Victor.
October 3, 2025 at 12:47 PM
Tell it like it is, Victor.
“The murky swirling of the end of a world perceived through the end of a life filled him with dismal reveries on which he brooded in a state of bearable affliction, even contentment.”
In awe of this furious, incandescent, teeming novel of revolution, violence, and decay.
In awe of this furious, incandescent, teeming novel of revolution, violence, and decay.
October 3, 2025 at 12:45 PM
“The murky swirling of the end of a world perceived through the end of a life filled him with dismal reveries on which he brooded in a state of bearable affliction, even contentment.”
In awe of this furious, incandescent, teeming novel of revolution, violence, and decay.
In awe of this furious, incandescent, teeming novel of revolution, violence, and decay.
Been a while since I read him. What a pleasure to be reminded again of his extraordinary talent for evocative detail, his caring attention to lives lived in the shadows of history, that mysterious, sly sleight of hand he brings to all his work. A master.
September 17, 2025 at 2:44 PM
Been a while since I read him. What a pleasure to be reminded again of his extraordinary talent for evocative detail, his caring attention to lives lived in the shadows of history, that mysterious, sly sleight of hand he brings to all his work. A master.
Increasingly fascinated by these men who are all at once not reading, reading but reading the wrong things, and reading the right things but for all the wrong reasons.
August 28, 2025 at 8:42 AM
Increasingly fascinated by these men who are all at once not reading, reading but reading the wrong things, and reading the right things but for all the wrong reasons.
A quite remarkable number of people seem to observe our collective descent into madness, hatred, and violence, and think to themselves: the way to resolve this is through additional madness, hatred, and violence.
August 25, 2025 at 11:01 AM
A quite remarkable number of people seem to observe our collective descent into madness, hatred, and violence, and think to themselves: the way to resolve this is through additional madness, hatred, and violence.
It seems to me that from the centre right across to the progressive left there must be one single shared goal and sense of purpose: preventing this man from getting into power.
August 23, 2025 at 7:39 AM
It seems to me that from the centre right across to the progressive left there must be one single shared goal and sense of purpose: preventing this man from getting into power.
Don’t want to start any drama but it’s actually his best novel.
August 18, 2025 at 6:09 PM
Don’t want to start any drama but it’s actually his best novel.
His most overlooked and fascinating album - too weird for the ballad-lovers, too smooth for the people who love him at his weirdest and most brutal. Reportedly one of the worst selling albums of all time, but teeming with ideas and beauty.
August 11, 2025 at 10:41 AM
His most overlooked and fascinating album - too weird for the ballad-lovers, too smooth for the people who love him at his weirdest and most brutal. Reportedly one of the worst selling albums of all time, but teeming with ideas and beauty.
“The bloodless duty of critique in the service of Enlightenment blinds us to what is rich, strange, and provocative about the tradition of thinking and experience that we label as mystical.”
One of the best things I’ve read this year - Simon Critchley’s “On Mysticism.”
One of the best things I’ve read this year - Simon Critchley’s “On Mysticism.”
August 10, 2025 at 7:26 PM
“The bloodless duty of critique in the service of Enlightenment blinds us to what is rich, strange, and provocative about the tradition of thinking and experience that we label as mystical.”
One of the best things I’ve read this year - Simon Critchley’s “On Mysticism.”
One of the best things I’ve read this year - Simon Critchley’s “On Mysticism.”
Ok why have I never before seen this picture of William James.
July 21, 2025 at 7:16 PM
Ok why have I never before seen this picture of William James.
Bolano and Tolstoy, both of the view that something had gone terribly amiss with contemporary literature and the people tasked with producing it. Could it be that the cycle of stagnation and revolution is constant, and that rather than bemoaning the former we should contemplate the latter?
July 20, 2025 at 10:02 AM
Bolano and Tolstoy, both of the view that something had gone terribly amiss with contemporary literature and the people tasked with producing it. Could it be that the cycle of stagnation and revolution is constant, and that rather than bemoaning the former we should contemplate the latter?
No voices at the window, though the sound of the wind even on a fairly still day is striking.
July 13, 2025 at 6:39 PM
No voices at the window, though the sound of the wind even on a fairly still day is striking.
Took a walk up to the cottage that, perhaps, inspired Wuthering Heights.
July 13, 2025 at 6:36 PM
Took a walk up to the cottage that, perhaps, inspired Wuthering Heights.
I think we must call time on “the discourse” while there are still one or two things of value it has not yet completely destroyed.
July 1, 2025 at 12:06 PM
I think we must call time on “the discourse” while there are still one or two things of value it has not yet completely destroyed.
Just take my money, I’m all in.
July 1, 2025 at 10:02 AM
Just take my money, I’m all in.
Is this what people mean by the “male novelist”.
June 21, 2025 at 12:32 PM
Is this what people mean by the “male novelist”.
Cat has invited me to a meeting.
June 12, 2025 at 9:37 AM
Cat has invited me to a meeting.
This is extraordinary - tiny jewel after tiny jewel, amassed over half a century, approached with total, borderline mystical dedication by Aimard. And the recorded sound is stunning.
May 2, 2025 at 9:31 AM
This is extraordinary - tiny jewel after tiny jewel, amassed over half a century, approached with total, borderline mystical dedication by Aimard. And the recorded sound is stunning.
Don’t really feel that saying “most working people” can be categorised on a spectrum from “idealistic yet unambitious to greedy and immoral” is really much of a winning start to a moral argument, frankly.
April 19, 2025 at 9:43 AM
Don’t really feel that saying “most working people” can be categorised on a spectrum from “idealistic yet unambitious to greedy and immoral” is really much of a winning start to a moral argument, frankly.
I had the great privilege of reading @totomcgee.bsky.social’s deeply moving, brilliantly inventive book in manuscript. Now it’s out in physical form from @dukepress.bsky.social. Very highly recommended.
March 28, 2025 at 3:12 PM
I had the great privilege of reading @totomcgee.bsky.social’s deeply moving, brilliantly inventive book in manuscript. Now it’s out in physical form from @dukepress.bsky.social. Very highly recommended.