David Reader 🐳📚🐦
@thepaleusher.bsky.social
Constant reader, occasional writer living near San Diego
We don’t have northern lights
but we have this tonight
but we have this tonight
November 13, 2025 at 1:16 AM
We don’t have northern lights
but we have this tonight
but we have this tonight
Whenever I watched the vessels standing out to sea with their white sails spread, I somehow thought of Miss Havisham and Estella; whenever the light struck aslant, afar off, upon a cloud or sail or green hill-side or water-line, it was just the same.
Dickens
Great Expectations C15
Dickens
Great Expectations C15
November 13, 2025 at 12:01 AM
Whenever I watched the vessels standing out to sea with their white sails spread, I somehow thought of Miss Havisham and Estella; whenever the light struck aslant, afar off, upon a cloud or sail or green hill-side or water-line, it was just the same.
Dickens
Great Expectations C15
Dickens
Great Expectations C15
. . . they somehow conveyed to me that they were all toadies and humbugs, but that each of them pretended not to know that the others were toadies and humbugs: because admission that he or she did know it, would have made him or her out to be a toady and humbug.
Dickens
Great Expectations C11
Dickens
Great Expectations C11
November 11, 2025 at 10:46 PM
. . . they somehow conveyed to me that they were all toadies and humbugs, but that each of them pretended not to know that the others were toadies and humbugs: because admission that he or she did know it, would have made him or her out to be a toady and humbug.
Dickens
Great Expectations C11
Dickens
Great Expectations C11
Not really a problem, though. I can use your start and end lines to follow along.
November 11, 2025 at 4:42 PM
Not really a problem, though. I can use your start and end lines to follow along.
November 10, 2025 at 5:00 PM
All is yet chaos, but, slowly, the apparitions change into living flesh, the shimmering mists take shape, and—who knows?—something may be born of the clash of nebulous ideas.
#SundaySentence
#JosephConrad
Conrad’s description of the writing process from a letter
#SundaySentence
#JosephConrad
Conrad’s description of the writing process from a letter
November 9, 2025 at 2:42 PM
All is yet chaos, but, slowly, the apparitions change into living flesh, the shimmering mists take shape, and—who knows?—something may be born of the clash of nebulous ideas.
#SundaySentence
#JosephConrad
Conrad’s description of the writing process from a letter
#SundaySentence
#JosephConrad
Conrad’s description of the writing process from a letter
But Agnes isn’t afraid of the creatures [owls]. She likes them, likes their eyes, which resemble the centre of marigolds, their overlapped, flecked feathers, their inscrutable expressions. They seem, to her, to exist in some doubled state, half spirit, half bird.
Maggie O’Farrell
Hamnet
Maggie O’Farrell
Hamnet
November 7, 2025 at 7:53 PM
But Agnes isn’t afraid of the creatures [owls]. She likes them, likes their eyes, which resemble the centre of marigolds, their overlapped, flecked feathers, their inscrutable expressions. They seem, to her, to exist in some doubled state, half spirit, half bird.
Maggie O’Farrell
Hamnet
Maggie O’Farrell
Hamnet
Joan is screeching even before she reaches the byre. The words fly out of her mouth, like hornets, words she didn’t even know she knew, words that dart and crackle and maim, words that twist and mangle her tongue.(74)
Maggie O’Farrell / Hamnet
Maggie O’Farrell / Hamnet
November 6, 2025 at 10:32 PM
Joan is screeching even before she reaches the byre. The words fly out of her mouth, like hornets, words she didn’t even know she knew, words that dart and crackle and maim, words that twist and mangle her tongue.(74)
Maggie O’Farrell / Hamnet
Maggie O’Farrell / Hamnet
EDGAR (Poor Tom)
Frateretto calls me, and tells me Nero is an angler in the lake of darkness. Pray, innocent, and beware the foul fiend.
#KingLear_2025
Act III s6 (8-9)
Frateretto calls me, and tells me Nero is an angler in the lake of darkness. Pray, innocent, and beware the foul fiend.
#KingLear_2025
Act III s6 (8-9)
November 6, 2025 at 4:15 PM
EDGAR (Poor Tom)
Frateretto calls me, and tells me Nero is an angler in the lake of darkness. Pray, innocent, and beware the foul fiend.
#KingLear_2025
Act III s6 (8-9)
Frateretto calls me, and tells me Nero is an angler in the lake of darkness. Pray, innocent, and beware the foul fiend.
#KingLear_2025
Act III s6 (8-9)
A nice haul this afternoon
November 4, 2025 at 11:47 PM
A nice haul this afternoon
Ahoy, Shipmates & Friends!
Happy #MelvilleMonday ! 🐳
“the ivory teeth, . . . furnishing a supply of that hard white whalebone with which the fishermen fashion all sorts of curious articles,”
Moby-Dick, Chapter 74
“The Sperm Whale’s Head”
Happy #MelvilleMonday ! 🐳
“the ivory teeth, . . . furnishing a supply of that hard white whalebone with which the fishermen fashion all sorts of curious articles,”
Moby-Dick, Chapter 74
“The Sperm Whale’s Head”
November 3, 2025 at 3:18 PM
Ahoy, Shipmates & Friends!
Happy #MelvilleMonday ! 🐳
“the ivory teeth, . . . furnishing a supply of that hard white whalebone with which the fishermen fashion all sorts of curious articles,”
Moby-Dick, Chapter 74
“The Sperm Whale’s Head”
Happy #MelvilleMonday ! 🐳
“the ivory teeth, . . . furnishing a supply of that hard white whalebone with which the fishermen fashion all sorts of curious articles,”
Moby-Dick, Chapter 74
“The Sperm Whale’s Head”
At Step 5 we come to one of the most famous statements in all of philosophy, with which Wittgenstein concluded the Tractatus: “What we cannot speak about we must pass over in silence.”
#SundaySentence
John L. Casti / Paradigms Lost
#SundaySentence
John L. Casti / Paradigms Lost
November 2, 2025 at 3:00 PM
At Step 5 we come to one of the most famous statements in all of philosophy, with which Wittgenstein concluded the Tractatus: “What we cannot speak about we must pass over in silence.”
#SundaySentence
John L. Casti / Paradigms Lost
#SundaySentence
John L. Casti / Paradigms Lost
VVB_LJ :
I was thinking of you less than an hour ago while I was editing this photo.
Weird coincidence. 😉 ✨🕊
#MossRules
I was thinking of you less than an hour ago while I was editing this photo.
Weird coincidence. 😉 ✨🕊
#MossRules
October 30, 2025 at 9:53 PM
VVB_LJ :
I was thinking of you less than an hour ago while I was editing this photo.
Weird coincidence. 😉 ✨🕊
#MossRules
I was thinking of you less than an hour ago while I was editing this photo.
Weird coincidence. 😉 ✨🕊
#MossRules
October 29, 2025 at 3:38 PM
Murder was a contaminating crime, subtly changing relationships which, even if not close, had been easy and without strain . . . It wasn’t a question of active suspicion, more the spread of an atmosphere of unease, a growing awareness that other people, other minds, were unknowable.
P D James
P D James
October 28, 2025 at 9:38 PM
Murder was a contaminating crime, subtly changing relationships which, even if not close, had been easy and without strain . . . It wasn’t a question of active suspicion, more the spread of an atmosphere of unease, a growing awareness that other people, other minds, were unknowable.
P D James
P D James
October 27, 2025 at 1:56 PM
from The Private Patient
October 26, 2025 at 2:06 PM
from The Private Patient
Ahoy, Shipmates & Friends!
Happy #MelvilleMonday ! 🐳
“. . . in some quarters it still remains a moot point whether a whale be a fish.”
Moby-Dick, “Cetology”
Happy #MelvilleMonday ! 🐳
“. . . in some quarters it still remains a moot point whether a whale be a fish.”
Moby-Dick, “Cetology”
October 20, 2025 at 2:22 PM
Ahoy, Shipmates & Friends!
Happy #MelvilleMonday ! 🐳
“. . . in some quarters it still remains a moot point whether a whale be a fish.”
Moby-Dick, “Cetology”
Happy #MelvilleMonday ! 🐳
“. . . in some quarters it still remains a moot point whether a whale be a fish.”
Moby-Dick, “Cetology”
. . . were the whale then to run the line out to the end almost in a single, smoking minute as he sometimes does, he would not stop there, for the doomed boat would infallibly be dragged down after him into the profundity of the sea . . .
#MobyDick C60 “The Line”
#AmericanReadalong
#MobyDick C60 “The Line”
#AmericanReadalong
October 16, 2025 at 4:05 PM
. . . were the whale then to run the line out to the end almost in a single, smoking minute as he sometimes does, he would not stop there, for the doomed boat would infallibly be dragged down after him into the profundity of the sea . . .
#MobyDick C60 “The Line”
#AmericanReadalong
#MobyDick C60 “The Line”
#AmericanReadalong
Along the way
After a little rain
After a little rain
October 15, 2025 at 6:36 PM
Along the way
After a little rain
After a little rain
October 13, 2025 at 3:43 PM
#AmericanReadalong
Long exile from Christendom and civilization inevitably restores a man to that condition in which God placed him, i. e. what is called savagery. Your true whale-hunter is as much a savage as an Iroquois. I myself am a savage . . .
#MobyDick C57
#MelvilleMonday
Long exile from Christendom and civilization inevitably restores a man to that condition in which God placed him, i. e. what is called savagery. Your true whale-hunter is as much a savage as an Iroquois. I myself am a savage . . .
#MobyDick C57
#MelvilleMonday
October 13, 2025 at 3:42 PM
#AmericanReadalong
Long exile from Christendom and civilization inevitably restores a man to that condition in which God placed him, i. e. what is called savagery. Your true whale-hunter is as much a savage as an Iroquois. I myself am a savage . . .
#MobyDick C57
#MelvilleMonday
Long exile from Christendom and civilization inevitably restores a man to that condition in which God placed him, i. e. what is called savagery. Your true whale-hunter is as much a savage as an Iroquois. I myself am a savage . . .
#MobyDick C57
#MelvilleMonday
Teachers—not all, but some—stayed awake all night hating them, because of their weird grown-up youth, which was like gardenias blooming in January, and their beauty, which was both stunning and sad as racehorses, and their love everyone except them knew wouldn’t last.
#SundaySentence
Marisha Pessl
#SundaySentence
Marisha Pessl
October 12, 2025 at 2:00 PM
Teachers—not all, but some—stayed awake all night hating them, because of their weird grown-up youth, which was like gardenias blooming in January, and their beauty, which was both stunning and sad as racehorses, and their love everyone except them knew wouldn’t last.
#SundaySentence
Marisha Pessl
#SundaySentence
Marisha Pessl
Western Sunset
October 11, 2025 at 1:23 AM
Western Sunset
Western Sky
(morning view)
(morning view)
October 10, 2025 at 3:34 PM
Western Sky
(morning view)
(morning view)