books, beauty, history, folklore. Dickens lover. married to @littleseamstress. gets dressed up like a pillow so she's always in bed. patreon.com/sketchesbyboze, https://linktr.ee/sketchesbybozehttps://bsky.app/profile/sketchesbyboze.bsky.socialhttps://bsky.app/profile/sketchesbyboze.bsky.social/post/3mlyycjpc322cThey should make a version of The Odyssey, only it’s set in Dublin, Ireland in 1904 and Odysseus is a Jewish man whose wife is having an affair and Telemachus is an aspiring author who gets into fights in pubs and wanders the strand brooding on his mother’s death.16 May 2026 23:19 +0000at://did:plc:hppum4l25hcczzffastsicpq/app.bsky.feed.post/3mlyycjpc322chttps://bsky.app/profile/sketchesbyboze.bsky.social/post/3mkstvkcryk26Retired folk spend hours a day watching slop on their phones. Kids can’t read because they’ve been hooked on tablets since they were two. College students are using AI to summarize books & write essays for them. Screens are eating this country alive.01 May 2026 19:19 +0000at://did:plc:hppum4l25hcczzffastsicpq/app.bsky.feed.post/3mkstvkcryk26https://bsky.app/profile/sketchesbyboze.bsky.social/post/3mk6p2ghptc2iIn the end, the world belongs not to the hedge-fund managers and vulture capitalists and tech moguls but to the lovers & scholars, the preservers of lost things, the stewards of the natural world, the human artists, the poets and mystics, the child just learning to read.23 Apr 2026 18:59 +0000at://did:plc:hppum4l25hcczzffastsicpq/app.bsky.feed.post/3mk6p2ghptc2ihttps://bsky.app/profile/sketchesbyboze.bsky.social/post/3mjfesdks3s2uSeveral folks in my mentions said they quit watching the new Count of Monte Cristo on PBS because it features Black actors. My friend, you are going to be shocked when you learn the ethnicity of Alexandre Dumas.13 Apr 2026 17:19 +0000at://did:plc:hppum4l25hcczzffastsicpq/app.bsky.feed.post/3mjfesdks3s2uhttps://bsky.app/profile/sketchesbyboze.bsky.social/post/3mhc4ltkzxk2eSaw someone say the world is a boring place because there are no elves or dragons, so I'm legally obliged to share this:17 Mar 2026 23:24 +0000at://did:plc:hppum4l25hcczzffastsicpq/app.bsky.feed.post/3mhc4ltkzxk2ehttps://bsky.app/profile/sketchesbyboze.bsky.social/post/3mhc4ltkzxk2eSaw someone say the world is a boring place because there are no elves or dragons, so I'm legally obliged to share this:17 Mar 2026 23:24 +0000at://did:plc:hppum4l25hcczzffastsicpq/app.bsky.feed.post/3mhc4ltkzxk2ehttps://bsky.app/profile/sketchesbyboze.bsky.social/post/3mgv5pbp6f222People think I’m being alarmist when I say they are trying to make you dumb. They feel entitled to control how and to what extent you can access knowledge. They send their kids to tech-free schools while ensuring public school kids can’t read. They want you illiterate. [contains quote post or other embedded content]12 Mar 2026 19:39 +0000at://did:plc:hppum4l25hcczzffastsicpq/app.bsky.feed.post/3mgv5pbp6f222https://bsky.app/profile/sketchesbyboze.bsky.social/post/3mgkyk4qyt222Midway through Fahrenheit 451, we learn that the U. S. government has launched a series of unprovoked wars against smaller countries, just because it can, while the population is so hypnotized by amusements & devices that hardly anyone knows the wars are taking place.08 Mar 2026 18:40 +0000at://did:plc:hppum4l25hcczzffastsicpq/app.bsky.feed.post/3mgkyk4qyt222https://bsky.app/profile/sketchesbyboze.bsky.social/post/3mgj35vdtg22zI get yelled at for saying this but for many hundreds of years people went to university not to get diplomas or be employable but because immersion in the humanities was considered foundational to a good life, and school must return to its original purpose: the joy of learning.08 Mar 2026 00:22 +0000at://did:plc:hppum4l25hcczzffastsicpq/app.bsky.feed.post/3mgj35vdtg22zhttps://bsky.app/profile/sketchesbyboze.bsky.social/post/3mgj35vdtg22zI get yelled at for saying this but for many hundreds of years people went to university not to get diplomas or be employable but because immersion in the humanities was considered foundational to a good life, and school must return to its original purpose: the joy of learning.08 Mar 2026 00:22 +0000at://did:plc:hppum4l25hcczzffastsicpq/app.bsky.feed.post/3mgj35vdtg22zhttps://bsky.app/profile/sketchesbyboze.bsky.social/post/3mg4vjysxas2uAI art isn’t real art and AI artists aren’t real artists.03 Mar 2026 04:09 +0000at://did:plc:hppum4l25hcczzffastsicpq/app.bsky.feed.post/3mg4vjysxas2uhttps://bsky.app/profile/sketchesbyboze.bsky.social/post/3meoxmzfhz22iI find it bleak how many people seem to have given up on having any kind of intellectual life. Depression is rampant because we’ve abandoned books & hobbies in favor of joyless amusements. The single most attractive thing a person can do is read often & delight in learning.12 Feb 2026 21:44 +0000at://did:plc:hppum4l25hcczzffastsicpq/app.bsky.feed.post/3meoxmzfhz22ihttps://bsky.app/profile/sketchesbyboze.bsky.social/post/3memln5dnq22bThis is why you need to be reading books and writing your own emails, by the way. When you outsource your thinking abilities, you risk turning your brain into soup. Heavy dependence on AI has already been linked with severe cognitive decline. What you don’t use, you will lose.11 Feb 2026 23:04 +0000at://did:plc:hppum4l25hcczzffastsicpq/app.bsky.feed.post/3memln5dnq22bhttps://bsky.app/profile/sketchesbyboze.bsky.social/post/3memgdbxlkk2tC. S. Lewis tried to warn us about AI11 Feb 2026 21:29 +0000at://did:plc:hppum4l25hcczzffastsicpq/app.bsky.feed.post/3memgdbxlkk2thttps://bsky.app/profile/sketchesbyboze.bsky.social/post/3me2p5ntse22zThe Washington Post is getting rid of its Books section. We’re losing the institutions—journalism, middle-class artistic and intellectual culture—that once made life bearable. Those things were a threat to the super-rich who increasingly govern us. Democracy dies in illiteracy.04 Feb 2026 20:19 +0000at://did:plc:hppum4l25hcczzffastsicpq/app.bsky.feed.post/3me2p5ntse22zhttps://bsky.app/profile/sketchesbyboze.bsky.social/post/3mcsjwiceic2pRach and I walked over to the university library yesterday and spent a few hours writing this list of our thirty-five most beloved characters in Dickens. Tremendous fun, and one of my favorite things we've written together. https://bibliollcollege.substack.com/p/our-thirty-five-favorite-characters19 Jan 2026 20:59 +0000at://did:plc:hppum4l25hcczzffastsicpq/app.bsky.feed.post/3mcsjwiceic2phttps://bsky.app/profile/sketchesbyboze.bsky.social/post/3mcie5m35dc2xI find Gmail’s new “write this for me” feature deeply sinister. They’re trying to convince you that you are dumb and helpless. Don’t let them steal your ability to formulate thoughts and communicate. You were capable of writing an email in 2022 and you’re capable now.15 Jan 2026 19:49 +0000at://did:plc:hppum4l25hcczzffastsicpq/app.bsky.feed.post/3mcie5m35dc2xhttps://bsky.app/profile/sketchesbyboze.bsky.social/post/3mb5rsrcgv22xOur mutual Christmas book haul (Rach’s books on the left and mine on the right). I’ve found that the happiest life is a life filled with love and books.29 Dec 2025 21:29 +0000at://did:plc:hppum4l25hcczzffastsicpq/app.bsky.feed.post/3mb5rsrcgv22xhttps://bsky.app/profile/sketchesbyboze.bsky.social/post/3maoleyt4kk2fSome of you have forgotten that only three years ago you were perfectly capable of writing a text, writing an email, telling a bedtime story to a child, and it should worry you that powerful companies have convinced us we can’t do things we’ve been doing since the dawn of time.23 Dec 2025 20:24 +0000at://did:plc:hppum4l25hcczzffastsicpq/app.bsky.feed.post/3maoleyt4kk2fhttps://bsky.app/profile/sketchesbyboze.bsky.social/post/3ma5swv4je222People say AI is a magic shortcut to creativity & success. I’ll tell you the real secret and it’s voraciously reading, being interested in everything, being diligent in the pursuit of learning, paying attention to the interior lives of others & keeping a heart open to the world.17 Dec 2025 04:24 +0000at://did:plc:hppum4l25hcczzffastsicpq/app.bsky.feed.post/3ma5swv4je222https://bsky.app/profile/sketchesbyboze.bsky.social/post/3m7j7trkyts2s“Why are folks getting dumber?” Because they don’t read. “Why aren’t men as romantic & poetic as they used to be?” Because they don’t read. “Why are people so vulnerable to propaganda?” “Why is everyone a conspiracy theorist?” Because they don’t read. Because they don’t read.08 Dec 2025 23:49 +0000at://did:plc:hppum4l25hcczzffastsicpq/app.bsky.feed.post/3m7j7trkyts2shttps://bsky.app/profile/sketchesbyboze.bsky.social/post/3m6xd3dz4r22kNo offense but I think we underestimate how many of our current problems, both cultural and political, are downstream of the decline in reading, the decline in learning and the loss of interest in the humanities.01 Dec 2025 20:59 +0000at://did:plc:hppum4l25hcczzffastsicpq/app.bsky.feed.post/3m6xd3dz4r22khttps://bsky.app/profile/sketchesbyboze.bsky.social/post/3m6xcsagerk2kIn honor of my birthday this week I encourage you to get a library card, read books of folklore, listen to medieval & Tudor Christmas carols, watch an old film by Welles or Bergman. Life is not long and we ought to find some beauty in each day. We ought to hold each other close.01 Dec 2025 20:54 +0000at://did:plc:hppum4l25hcczzffastsicpq/app.bsky.feed.post/3m6xcsagerk2khttps://bsky.app/profile/sketchesbyboze.bsky.social/post/3m6ddb5kj7c2aThere's an enormous cat who lives a few streets down. She somehow figured out a way to unlatch and open the screen door leading into our bedroom. Every night she breaks into our room, curls up on my chest and falls asleep. I've been adopted by a real-life Miyazaki character.23 Nov 2025 22:09 +0000at://did:plc:hppum4l25hcczzffastsicpq/app.bsky.feed.post/3m6ddb5kj7c2ahttps://bsky.app/profile/sketchesbyboze.bsky.social/post/3m65xpkoo7c26Sat down at the dining-room table to read a bit of Bleak House. Noticed that my wife, seated next to me, was also reading Bleak House. Realized we have at least FIVE copies of the novel. This is what human flourishing looks like.21 Nov 2025 18:59 +0000at://did:plc:hppum4l25hcczzffastsicpq/app.bsky.feed.post/3m65xpkoo7c26https://bsky.app/profile/sketchesbyboze.bsky.social/post/3m5z4lpcqwc24I’m looking for a good contemporary novel. I’ve been reading a lot of medieval poems & sagas and realized I’d read hardly any recent fiction this year. I love a book that’s a bit cerebral, a bit strange, and tells a solidly plotted story with a minimum of fuss.19 Nov 2025 20:43 +0000at://did:plc:hppum4l25hcczzffastsicpq/app.bsky.feed.post/3m5z4lpcqwc24https://bsky.app/profile/sketchesbyboze.bsky.social/post/3m5riq4xgus2pReading will make you more interesting. Last week I met up with some old friends and we were discussing Cornwall. I told them, “According to legend, the devil avoids Cornwall for fear he will be baked into a pie” and the expression on their faces was priceless.16 Nov 2025 19:59 +0000at://did:plc:hppum4l25hcczzffastsicpq/app.bsky.feed.post/3m5riq4xgus2p