Book jockeyhttps://bsky.app/profile/john-self.bsky.socialhttps://bsky.app/profile/john-self.bsky.social/post/3mtr5gvphvs2uWhat’s the meaning of the hand gestures most of them are doing?23 Aug 2026 15:52 +0000at://did:plc:2cadvbwpkxtuvmv2gpy5laml/app.bsky.feed.post/3mtr5gvphvs2uhttps://bsky.app/profile/john-self.bsky.social/post/3mtqspylr7c2tA terrific book [contains quote post or other embedded content]23 Aug 2026 12:40 +0000at://did:plc:2cadvbwpkxtuvmv2gpy5laml/app.bsky.feed.post/3mtqspylr7c2thttps://bsky.app/profile/john-self.bsky.social/post/3mtloeoffqc2sA revolutionary theatre company's "napalm opera" Vietnam-a-Go-Go; two men, each reading a novel about the other; a migrant who pretends he's an asylum seeker so employers feels sorry for him; and a woman who asks her maid to help her read the letters on an optician’s chart. Me on translated fiction https://www.theguardian.com/books/2026/aug/21/the-best-recent-translated-fiction-review-roundup21 Aug 2026 11:39 +0000at://did:plc:2cadvbwpkxtuvmv2gpy5laml/app.bsky.feed.post/3mtloeoffqc2shttps://bsky.app/profile/john-self.bsky.social/post/3mtoo436hek2aI like this cartoon by @tysoncole.bsky.social.22 Aug 2026 16:12 +0000at://did:plc:2cadvbwpkxtuvmv2gpy5laml/app.bsky.feed.post/3mtoo436hek2ahttps://bsky.app/profile/john-self.bsky.social/post/3ldets563sc2f"So the publishing workforce is getting more diverse, but no more equal. [...] We’ve also seen publishing begin to advocate for a politics of respect and celebration for working class lives, a kind of Pride for the working-classes." Sunjeev Sahota on class v identity in literature: https://nonsite.org/the-inauthenticity-of-our-class-discourse-or-publishing-respects-your-foodbank-usage/15 Dec 2024 22:18 +0000at://did:plc:2cadvbwpkxtuvmv2gpy5laml/app.bsky.feed.post/3ldets563sc2fhttps://bsky.app/profile/john-self.bsky.social/post/3mtloeoffqc2sA revolutionary theatre company's "napalm opera" Vietnam-a-Go-Go; two men, each reading a novel about the other; a migrant who pretends he's an asylum seeker so employers feels sorry for him; and a woman who asks her maid to help her read the letters on an optician’s chart. Me on translated fiction https://www.theguardian.com/books/2026/aug/21/the-best-recent-translated-fiction-review-roundup21 Aug 2026 11:39 +0000at://did:plc:2cadvbwpkxtuvmv2gpy5laml/app.bsky.feed.post/3mtloeoffqc2shttps://bsky.app/profile/john-self.bsky.social/post/3mtlnzqbt3k2sThis is more like You Bet! territory. (Remember the man who could identify the model of a car by the sound of its door closing?) [contains quote post or other embedded content]21 Aug 2026 11:32 +0000at://did:plc:2cadvbwpkxtuvmv2gpy5laml/app.bsky.feed.post/3mtlnzqbt3k2shttps://bsky.app/profile/john-self.bsky.social/post/3mtf6ny4bik2iIf you’ve ever had a prostate examination, put your hand up.18 Aug 2026 21:41 +0000at://did:plc:2cadvbwpkxtuvmv2gpy5laml/app.bsky.feed.post/3mtf6ny4bik2ihttps://bsky.app/profile/john-self.bsky.social/post/3mted2vfqfs2q"It is a sign of Harris’s discipline as a novelist that he has Agrippa tell his tale in almost comically unambitious prose." Discipline, eh? Sam Leith on Robert Harris's new novel Agrippa: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2026/aug/17/agrippa-by-robert-harris-review-persuasive-portrait-of-rivalry-in-ancient-rome18 Aug 2026 13:28 +0000at://did:plc:2cadvbwpkxtuvmv2gpy5laml/app.bsky.feed.post/3mted2vfqfs2qhttps://bsky.app/profile/john-self.bsky.social/post/3mte5h57s4s2tGP surgeries shouldn’t say ‘satisfactory’ when giving out test results. ‘Superb’ or gtfo.18 Aug 2026 11:47 +0000at://did:plc:2cadvbwpkxtuvmv2gpy5laml/app.bsky.feed.post/3mte5h57s4s2t