It’s like an action movie where the hero defuses the nuclear bomb with 1 second left on the timer, and everyone cheers, but I’m like, “Look at the trail of dead bodies behind him and FFS, THERE’S STILL AN ARMED NUKE RIGHT THERE!”
So…. Let the next three months of democracy shattering shenanigans begin!
And then, of course (assuming there’s no actual civil war that breaks out), there’s four years from now when every nutbar in every dark hole in America will worm their way out to run for office. The world won’t be free of dumb-crazy America until they spend 50 years shoring up education down there to offset the last fifty years they’ve spent eroding it. But… but… Kamala! Yes, she’s a pro-incarceration former cop, but she’s also Black, Asian, and a Woman of significant eloquence, skill, and energy. Bam. Even old greasy Joe, shirtlessly washing his Trans Am in the Whitehouse driveway. It’s amazing how a two-party-system can make the centre-right option look like the left, ain’t it? Says something about where Western democracy is headed.
- It’s Giller day! AKA CanLit Xmas (but only for one person). Will post winner later;
- Author photos…. Can I just use one from when I was young, so no one has to look at all this?;
- Book sales rise in US;
- Margaret Atwood in the Guardian is almost always a treat;
- Young UK Writer of the Year Award shortlist;
- Republicans vs the Chinese scifi author;
- Essential works of punk rock literature;
- The case for continuing to swim in the Goodreads septic tank;
- Do you read on your laptop? What’s the best free ebook app for Mac or PC?;
- On solving the “world’s most difficult [and pointless?] literary puzzle“;
- Indie booksellers vs Covid makes the network news (what we would have once called “broadcast news”, back in the day);
- RIP: Natan Zach, Israeli poet laureate, dead at 89;
- Anthony Burgess, the poet: A Clockwork…. what rhymes with Orange?;
Bookninja 