Eleventh Volume

2025 books read. Not pictured, Lutz’s Backwardness. Best of the year: The Mountain Lion by Jean Stafford, with Purdy’s Cabot Wright Begins close behind.

@quartermass Not as advanced as you. I make cardboard planks

@EleventhVolume You do the wood plank move??

I’ll forever thank this man for giving me the idea to double-stack my shelves this way.

@damiankelleher You’re a madman.

Currently reading pile / view from my balcony

Some heavy-hitters being memorialised.

@davidrmoran That was aspiringly quick-witted.

@EleventhVolume No

I just read this and was waxing lyrical to a friend about Updike’s prose. He felt it was strange he fell out of fashion. I don’t get that impression. Updike seems to me to be a stalwart of American letters with a loyal readership. Have I got that wrong?

@rios_ucio Thanks for the reminder, I’ve been wanting to read this.

@EleventhVolume You should definitely read this adoring appreciation of Updike. It’s very funny, and beautifully written. Love Updike’s essays, but his fiction feels like a lot of filigree, and some weird fixation on women’s crotches. I’ve enjoyed A Month of Sundays and Couples.

These stories are no different to reading a poem, where the poet (if they are good) guides the reader with total economy and precision. Hannah, the rebel without applause, was the poet of short stories and may his memory sing on through these musical compositions.

@geoffwilt I was waiting for your input. I either saw you write about them here or on goodreads, or both, I don’t know. Excited nonetheless.

three of the best books you’ll ever read

@damiankelleher @iprimaa I’ve seen those - not sure what to think of them. The topic book in this picture was $4 from Savers.

@EleventhVolume @iprimaa Very nice. I just have his cat books, and I hate cats

Finally acquired, by happenstance and very cheaply, the third Branch of Roubaud’s autobiographical project.

@EmmettStinson Curious to know whether you ever read reviews beforehand? I try and keep a blank slate.

Was very excited for this novel but am not totally certain what to make of it so far. Will be curious to read some reviews when I am finished.

Stately plump Buck Mulligan rode in a golf cart fatly

@JonSimaPoet Jonathan, it’s a damn joke. Someone has to be playing a prank, otherwise we’re doomed.

@EleventhVolume That … seems over-excessive. The tag over the original barcode would’ve been sufficient.

A new level of obnoxiousness has been reached to ensure the entire city knows this book was used.

@OdenKate Love a spiral bound notebook. Has to be the most convenient way to take notes given its versatility (on knee, in hand, on table, on armchair). My philosophy is if the notebook makes it easier to jot it down, it’s better. As much as I’d love to use Moleskin and others all the time

March 1 and I’ve been a more consistent reader for a year or so. I wish I’d never left it.

@EmmettStinson The art of telling whether something is used isn’t hard to master. Surely for a bookseller like WOB, if you can’t tell it’s used, it’s new.

@EleventhVolume The art of using isn't hard to master

@DerekTFrasure I need this Goo Gone stuff you speak of.

@EleventhVolume I can't live with that. I use Goo Gone and destroy my thumbnails to get them all off.

“Though we cannot expect to love one another, we must learn to put up with one another. Otherwise we shall all of us perish.” – E. M. Forster (1951)