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It's easy to think you'd be able to do something when you know that you'd never have to actually do it.

"Don't use Libby because it costs libraries too much, pirate instead" is such a weird, anti-patron, anti-author take that somehow manages to also be anti-library, in my professional librarian-ass opinion.

It's well documented that pirating books negatively affects authors directly* in a way that pirating movies or TV shows doesn't affect actors or writers, so I will likely always be anti-book piracy unless there's absolutely, positively no other option (i.e. the book simply doesn't exist outside of online archives at all, or in a particular language).

Also, yeah, Libby and Hoopla licenses are really expensive, but libraries buy them SO THAT PATRONS CAN USE THEM. If you're gonna be pissed at anybody about this shitty state of affairs, be pissed at publishing companies and continue to use Libby or Hoopla at your library so we can continue to justify having it to our funding bodies.

One of the best ways to support your library having services you like is to USE THOSE SERVICES. Yes, even if they are expensive.

*Yes, this is a blog post, but it's a blog post filled with links to news articles. If you can click one link, you can click another.

Please, PLEASE use Libby. OverDrive. Hoopla. CloudLibrary. Kanopy. Flipster. Freegal. Transparent Language. Mango. Jstor. Your library would not offer it if they could not afford it, and we afford things by reporting the number of people who use that service, so if you don't use the service we can't afford it. It's a cycle. Keep it going, keep using it, and we'll keep providing because we'll be able to justify the cost to the bean counters in government.

This war has to stop. Israel is stopping aid from getting into Gaza and people are starving.

I’ve known Ayelet for over twenty years, and am now, as so often, proud of her. Here’s her husband, Michael’s Instagram, with more background and information.

Neil Gaimain about writing Good Omens with Terry Pratchett (x)

Neil: His line to me when we were writing “Good Omens”, he would phone me up and he’d say, I’ve just done this and it’s made it 17% funnier. I’d written this whole meeting between the International Express man and Pollution and I’d mentioned that, you know, ‘he and his wife went down there sometimes when they were courting to spoon’ and Terry added the line, ‘and on one memorable occason, fork.’

Rob: On one memorable occasion.

Neil: On one memorable occasion, and it‘s made it 17% better. In fact, in that case it may have made it 100% better.

Coach Fall/Winter 2024.25

I passed by a thrift store the other day with a quietly Scooby-Doo themed display for Halloween:

My cartoon for this weekend’s Guardian books.

imagine accusing the us military of being too woke

Obsessed w how the gangs' all posed in this scene ngl

Art by Syd Mead. If I understand the source correctly, this one’s called “Innovations,” and is a surrealist city aerial view done for U.S. Steel in 1968.

thank you to walt peregoy for making scooby doo where are you! even more memorable as a child

ID 📸

"Rent should be no more than 30% of household income" is a really funny and roundabout way to say "property owners as a class are entitled to 30% of gross wages"

the Columbia University arrests are worse than they seem. They're arresting protesting students for trespassing. It goes without saying students cannot meaningfully "trespass" in the common areas of a university they attend. So Columbia University has suspended all student protestors from their institution, in the process revoking their access to housing, their belonging, and most crucially damaging their academic futures. We are witnessing full scale silencing and removal of anyone of conscience from the next generation of academia.

maybe they shouldn’t have wandered into that pizzeria…