Recommendations you can check.
American novelist and critic, author of Real Life and The Late Americans; writes the newsletter sweater weather.
10 things
Muji pensHardware Muji
It was around this time, in the summer of 2021, that I discovered the Muji pens. I discovered them as every minimalism fetishist discovers them perhaps.
Newsletter post explaining how he builds his own Muji 0.38-style annotating pens from mixed pen bodies and gel refills.
2024-04-04·blgtylr.substack.com ↗
Papermate InkJoyHardware Papermate
My favorite pens at the time were the Papermate InkJoy and the Tül pens I had stolen from lab before departing for my MFA in Iowa City.
Newsletter post explaining how he builds his own Muji 0.38-style annotating pens from mixed pen bodies and gel refills.
2024-04-04·blgtylr.substack.com ↗
Tül pensHardware TUL
My favorite pens at the time were the Papermate InkJoy and the Tül pens I had stolen from lab before departing for my MFA in Iowa City.
Newsletter post explaining how he builds his own Muji 0.38-style annotating pens from mixed pen bodies and gel refills.
2024-04-04·blgtylr.substack.com ↗
The Court and the CastleBook Rebecca West
It was in such a place that I found the book The Court and the Castle by Rebecca West. It's a strange little book but a brilliant one, provocative and cunning.
Newsletter essay on a year of book buying and reading in New York, his favourite books of the year and where he shops.
2022-12-08·blgtylr.substack.com ↗
Fellowship PointBook Alice Elliott Dark
There have been many novels written in historical modes this year, and I've hated all of them except Fellowship Point by Alice Elliott Dark precisely because that novel feels vibrant and lively and full of characters and it reminds me of early 20th century literature.
Newsletter essay on a year of book buying and reading in New York, his favourite books of the year and where he shops.
2022-12-08·blgtylr.substack.com ↗
eBayService
I wanted the the superior UK edition of two Kawabata books, so I ordered them from eBay. They arrived in like five days. It was amazing.
Newsletter essay on a year of book buying and reading in New York, his favourite books of the year and where he shops.
2022-12-08·blgtylr.substack.com ↗
The Drama BookshopOther
Recently though, I went to The Drama Bookshop, which was a delightful surprise. It is the closest I have come to the experience of a Manhattan bookshop as a third place in the kind of Prairie Lights mode.
Newsletter essay on a year of book buying and reading in New York, his favourite books of the year and where he shops.
2022-12-08·blgtylr.substack.com ↗
Pentel Energel LRN5Hardware Pentel
The Pentel Energel LRN5 or LR7. You can also use the refills from Papermate Ink Joy and the Tül refills.
Newsletter post explaining how he builds his own Muji 0.38-style annotating pens from mixed pen bodies and gel refills.
2024-04-04·blgtylr.substack.com ↗
the StrandOther
For used books, the Strand is pretty amazing. If you want an interesting, vibey new book, you don't go to the Strand, you go to McNally Jackson.
Newsletter essay on a year of book buying and reading in New York, his favourite books of the year and where he shops.
2022-12-08·blgtylr.substack.com ↗
The Late AmericansBook Brandon Taylor
Also, please preorder The Late Americans so I can write more homosexual novels—it comes out next year!
Newsletter essay on a year of book buying and reading in New York, his favourite books of the year and where he shops.
2022-12-08·blgtylr.substack.com ↗
Every entry is a verbatim quote and a link to the public post it came from. Nothing is paraphrased. If it is not on record somewhere public, it is not here.
The verdict is what they actually said: loved and liked are explicit; recommended means they told others to get it; uses means they only say they use it; read is a book on their public shelf with no verdict; mixed and disliked are kept too.
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The shading behind a date shows how dated a recommendation is for its kind of thing.
The shading behind a date shows how dated a recommendation is, for its kind of thing. Fully green is recent. It drains a quarter at a time as the post gets older, and is empty once it reads as dated.
What counts as old depends on the thing. A laptop praised four years ago has been replaced twice; a book loved twenty years ago is probably still loved. The shading is gone after about:
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