Having just bailed on a self-help book, let's see how I get on with (yet another) author's cat memoir! 😸

I picked this up because I like the title and the author/illustrator's name, Dancing Snail💃🐌
It's a self-help book about depression and fatigue, lots of illustrations to reduce cognitive load in delivering its message. I'm not a great fan of self-help books, but it'll be interesting to see how this one comes across.

Oh, yeah, a gratuitous #BookmarkMatching photo 📖🔖

Wrong legion for the story, but I do what I can! 😀

This was a great historical novel set in the 367CE Roman province of Britannia, a period about which we know enough to provide interesting background, while also vague enough to give an author lots of latitude to play around & I thought Duckworth did justice to the material.
The story follows Alberic, an exiled Saxon prince, and Dominicus, an embittered young legionary, as their paths in the conflict raging across the island gradually converge, ⬇️

Four #LibraryHaul GNs this week, of which Conan was the best, precisely capturing the classic sword & sorcery aesthetic, by Crom!
The Star Wars book was unreadable and I bailed. The Force was weak in that one!
Venom was ok, a flashback to the Lethal Protector's early career, featuring Silver Sable & Nick Fury, with Doctor Doom the antagonist. Workmanlike rather than inspired.
⬇️

"I can't believe I'm doing this."

#FirstLineFridays @ShyBookOwl

This is volume three of Zub's "Black Stone" storyline of Conan comics, and while I haven't read the previous two volumes, it doesn't really matter - I'd guess he's had to fight wizards and monsters, flexing his "mighty thews"?? and killing anyone and anything within reach of his sword ?️
That said, it's exactly what I want from a Conan comic, and - Bonus! This one sees him cast back in time 80,000 years to Valusia and an encounter with ⬇️

“There is in fact no way of correcting wrongdoing in those who think that the height of virtue consists in the execution of their will.”

"Sovereign power is nothing if it does not care for the welfare of others, and...it is the task of a good ruler to keep his power in check, to resist the passions of unbridled desire and implacable rage."

"The last embers of the fiery sunset danced across the surface of the Solway Firth, with the tips of its fingers illuminating the great stone fort at its edge."

#FirstLineFridays @ShyBookOwl

It's that time of the year to re-read Sir Gawain and the Green Knight 💚❤️💚
This time around, it's Simon Armitage's revised translation, with lots of luscious illustrations. When I first flicked through this version, it didn't sit well with me, but as I'm actually sitting down with it to read through, it's actually flowing nicely.
🙇🏻🩸🪓🧌

"O Rose thou art sick.
The invisible worm.
That flies in the night
In the howling storm:

Has found out thy bed
Of crimson joy;
And his dark secret love
Does thy life destroy."

- The Sick Rose

I like faded flowers, though these are starting to get a bit Miss Haversham, so I should probably throw them out now ?

I attended training today on working in a healthcare setting with autistic people and those with a learning disability. The training company has published a range of picture books introducing children to various long-term health conditions, while raising awareness of diversity. This one was on my table, and I found it charming and informative. There are five in this "My...Has..." series.
https://www.happysmilestraining.co.uk/our-books/

#TuesdayTunes @TieDyeDude

I love Pixies, so while this post could feature any of their albums, this is the one I'm listening to right now, so Bossanova it is!
I first heard them listening to Surfer Rosa on John Peel's evening radio show. I miss Peely.

I don't need much persuasion to be listening to #Finland 's national composer, Sibelius, but as it's his birthday today, it seemed rude not to mindfully do so.
Sibelius derived his Pelléas et Mélisande suite from his incidental music for Maeterlinck's play about the doomed love of the title characters. The setting is a decaying castle deep in the forest, which fits the mood of the book I'm reading, "Gossip from the Forest".
?? ????

A newly acquired 1958 Folio Society edition of short stories originally published in 1686, in which Ihara is credited with creating the Ukiyo "Floating World" genre of Edo Period Japanese literature.
Folio covers are often difficult to photograph: this one is bound in a beautiful watchet-tinted silk ?
The end papers and title pages are beneath, and a detail of one of the woodcut illustrations to the left ❤️

Any UK Littens looking for book gifts (or, let's face it, just books!), publisher Reaktion Books has a Christmas sale on, link below. I've just ordered £128 of books for £36, including delivery, due in 2 working days!
I have no interest to declare, other than that of accumulating books 😄📚📚
https://reaktionbooks.co.uk/books/special-offers

"Along with most if not all Romance languages, the English word courage derives from the Latin word 'cor' meaning heart."

- The courage to be, to become - and to belong: a person-centered understanding, by Keith Tudor

#FirstLineFridays @ShyBookOwl

Next up... It has mixed reviews, which would probably have put me off buying it if I'd checked first, but I didn't so ...🤞

"There is something I don't know
that I'm supposed to know.
I don't know what it is I don't know,
and yet I'm supposed to know,
and I feel stupid
if I seem both to not know it
and not know what it is I don't know.
Therefore I pretend to know it.
This is nerve-racking
since I don't know what I must pretend to know.
Therefore I pretend to know everything."

? R. D. Laing

#TuesdayTunes @TieDyeDude #Christmas

I've got dozens of Christmas albums: Mrs B got me a cheesy one years ago and then it became a family tradition that she'd get me a Christmas album as a present 🎁
We used to love watching Ally McBeal, though I'm not sure how well it would stand a rewatch. Vonda Shepard's music was integral to the show, and this Christmas album features her arrangements of seasonal pop classics, as well as covers by the cast.

Psychotherapist R. D. Laing's poems are distillations of the emotional and psychological knots into which people tie themselves as their relationships entangle. I think I may like these 🧶❤️‍🩹🪢

A useful, short introduction to socialism and what the path from capitalism to socialism might look like. At this point in history, it reads like speculative fiction, but it can be non-fiction if enough people want it.
Probably not in my lifetime though. Still ... 🚩✊🚩

This just scraped a low pick: I found the initial ⅓ or so hard work & throughout it was heavy-handed. I like an author to leave at least some of the work to me, but Kawamura Really. Hammered. Home. Every. Point.
I also found the Faustian bargain element off-the-shelf & only marginally less annoying than the dialogue, which was really *very* annoying. However...
Within all that, there was an interesting and affecting human story to be excavated 3½⭐

“We may think we own cats, but that‘s not the way it is. They simply allow us the pleasure of their company.”

My sadly missed boy, Frankie. Reading this book is stirring bittersweet feelings of loss. It's weird to think it's been a couple of years since he passed ❤️🐈‍⬛❤️
#CatsOfLitsy

I read a couple of other things that weren't on StoryGraph, but I guess they were relatively short so 12 items & 1500 pages is not much out. I'm struggling a bit with focus lately, so I don't think I'll read as much this year as last, but then again I'm trying not to compete with myself!
The Willows & Other Queer Tales by Algernon Blackwood was my favourite of the month, with new-to-me The Best of Archy and Mehitabel being a delightful find 😊

"Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome [PTSS] is a condition that exists when a population has experienced multigenerational trauma resulting from centuries of slavery and continues to experience oppression and institutionalised racism today."

I'm aware of the concept of intergenerational trauma, but I've not previously come across this specific formulation of it, which sounds interesting.

#FirstLineFridays @ShyBookOwl

"So the 'isolationist' section of the ruling class has won control of political power in the United States." - Editorial: "Trump Triumphs"

#SocialistStandard #1444 examines Trump's election win, the cover story being about climate change, the catastrophic floods in Spain, and the likely impact of the POTUS Elect's denialism.
Also included, the fourth part of an analysis of a speech by William Morris; a rather ⬇️

- bookwomble makes a debatable decision about a book review

boss
i read that book you did
about archy and mehitabel
with transmigrations and observations
on insects and alley cats
actors and aristocrats
politicians
prohibitions
and dried-up pharaohs

it was pretty good
for vers libre
humourous
satirical
not too lyrical
but wotthehell boss wotthehell
it was made into a musical

it made me chuckle
more than once
which is no mean feat
i try to be ⬇️

"when the ribald moon leers over the roof
and the mist reeks up from the chuckling stream
i pad the quais on a silent hoof
dreaming the vagabond s ancient dream
where the piebald toms of the quartier teem
and fight for a fish or a mouldy clam
my rival i rip and his guts unseam
for i am a cat of the devil i am" ?

- mehitabel meets an affinity

A shortish bestiary of mainly Western traditions, but does include other mythologies, alphabetically arranged with a page of illustrated text and a facing page of captioned illustrations, with only a few errors.
It looks nice and went down quickly in one bite, a sort of bookish hors d'oeuvre or amuse bouche 🍮 Low pick, though, because of those couple of errors 3.5⭐

"coarse
jocosity
catches the crowd
shakespeare
and i
are often
low browed

the fish wife
curse
and the laugh of the horse
shakespeare
and i
are frequently
coarse

aesthetic
excuses
in bill s behalf
are adduced
to refine
big bill s
coarse laugh

but bill
he would chuckle
to hear such guff
he pulled
rough stuff
and he liked
rough stuff

hoping you
are the same
archy"

- archy confesses

“i have had my ups and downs
but wotthehell wotthehell
yesterday sceptres and crowns
fried oysters and velvet gowns
and today i herd with bums
but wotthehell wotthehell
...
there s a dance in the old dame yet
toujours gai toujours gai"

- the song of mehitabel

[Pic: Carolyn Hennesy as Mehitabel in a Broadway production]

#TuesdayTunes @TieDyeDude
I've finally started watching the 6+ hours of Peter Jackson's epic movie trilogy. No, not The Lord of the Rings, no, definitely not The Hobbit, and thank god nobody asked him to do a King Kong trilogy! No, it's the Beatles documentary Get Back, and I'm falling in love with John, Paul, George and Ringo all over again 🥲

I read one of the poems in this collection in an anthology recently & enjoyed it, so seeing a "Best of" a few days ago seemed serendipitous (or perhaps synchronistic, in the Jungian sense), so I bought it.
The bookseller let out a little squeak as I put it on the counter, apologising for her enthusiasm & telling me she always has a copy in as it was a favourite of her mother's, who used to read it to her as a child, so that seems high praise.

Although this illustration isn't for an Asimov tale, it does capture something of the essence of his story "Satisfaction Guaranteed," which I think successfully skewers 1950's corporate culture and misogynistic sexual politics.
All of the stories are worthy additions to the Robot Mythos, the artificial beings unfailingly revealing the flaws of their creators.
Susan Calvin is a more nuanced character than I think she is often given credit for, ⬇️

A short comic critiquing Rowling's transphobia, racism and cultural insensitivity, without rubbishing the books themselves.

Read it online at Maia Kobabe's website: https://redgoldsparkspress.com/projects/7180180

A short, cute comic I read online about dimensional rifts appearing in neighborhood communities, caused by commercial exploitation of portal technology.
It's only slightly about those things, it's actually about rift repairer, Miss Josie, stitching up rifts with the aid of her assistant, Bini, and her dog, Mr. Bingley, and meeting and helping people.
Read online at https://jean-wei.tumblr.com/tagged/comic

"Affirming your gender can be joyful and safe! If your current binding method isn't doing it for you, experiment with other methods. There is a better one out there for you." ?️‍⚧️

I read this to improve my understanding of the non-binary and transmasc experience of binding, and to inform my work in a general NHS counselling service, which is accessible for trans clients.

This graphic guide has personal accounts of several people who bind, ⬇️

"I think I am in love with A. E. Housman,
Which puts me in a worse-than-usual fix.
No woman ever stood a chance with Housman
And he's been dead since 1936."
???

"Bloody men are like bloody buses -
You wait for about a year
And as soon as one approaches your stop
Two or three others appear."

- Bloody Men

#FirstLineFridays @ShyBookOwl

Amazingly for me, I've started my Christmas shopping before December! 🎁
The lamp is a gift for our daughter's partner, the books are (for no special reason) for me 😁
• Serious Concerns by Wendy Cope: amusing poetry about relationships (it appears from a quick browse) 💔
• The Best of Archy and Mehitabel by Don Marquis: more amusing poetry, written by a cockroach 🪳
• Gossip from the Forest by Sara Maitland: nature writing and folklore 🌳🧚🏻‍♀️

In his Introduction, Asimov makes the following inaccurate prediction about AI:

"If robots are so advanced that they can mimic the thought processes of human beings, then surely the nature of those thought processes will be designed by human engineers and built-in safeguard will be added."

I tend to read a lot of sci-fi, but 2024 seems to be a bumper year for it!

I read "I, Robot" earlier this year, so here I go with the follow up collection. ? v.2.0

#ClassicLSFBC @Ruthiella @RamsFan1963
I first read Ringworld when I was 12, and it's been a favourite novel in a favourite sci fi universe ever since, so I really enjoyed this revisit to one of the galaxy's most amazing structures.
The Ringworld itself dominates the story. Niven tried to make it as scientifically credible as possible, having to conjure "magical" materials to create his vision, but that's the "fiction" part of SciFi. Famously, ⬇️

The Kzin are one of my favourite alien species, which I'm reminded of while reading Ringworld, which features Kzinti warrior-diplomat, Speaker-to-Animals. Think Klingons crossed with tigers and you're somewhere close (but don't get too close!).
Speaking of Klingons, the Kzin are an official Star Trek race as they appear in the Animated Series episode, The Slaver Weapon, an adaptation by Niven of his classic story, The Soft Weapon.

Having bailed on my previous SF read, I'm picking up Ringworld, the #ClassicLSFBC November pick.
It's the first in a series, and part of Niven's Known Space universe, knowledge of which enhances the enjoyment, I think, but this can comfortably be read as a standalone.
The art book at back is "Alien Landscapes" and shows a painting of Louis Wu's spaceship, Lying Bastard, approaching the Ringworld with his team of human and non-human ⬇️

#LitsySciFiBookClub
I don't particularly like reality TV shows, so I guess I'm not the right reader for a book about a reality TV show.
I appreciate that this is a critique of the genre, of consumerism, the increasing monetisation of all aspects of life, the intrusion of governments and private companies into personal spaces, and the intensification of the Society of the Spectacle, but 81 pages is enough for me to know I don't need this object ⬇️

I've done less reading than I might have this week as I've been doing this jigsaw, titled "The Secret Garden". Although it wasn't intentional, I've coincidentally been reading stories with a nature setting, so there's been a synergy between my reading and puzzling.
The animals were fairly easy to get done as the pieces were quite distinctive, but those little leaves and the twigs were slow going! ??????‍⬛???️??

In a dystopian Britain under late-stage capitalism, where childcare costs can be over £20,000 per child per year, many people can no longer afford to have children, and those unable to fulfil their wish for parenthood are driven to desperation and despair.
So, to distract myself from that, I thought I'd read this book, the #LitsySciFiBookClub November pick.

Not all of the stories were 5 ⭐, but those that were were *so* 5⭐ that I've no hesitation in giving a maximum rating to the collection as a whole.
Blackwood's ability to evoke a liminal sense of something other impinging on the ordinary is wonderful, and this overlay of one reality with another is probably most fully developed in the classic "Ancient Sorceries", but is evident throughout in degrees. ⬇️