Pete Simon

"If you’ve never read it, you need to run, not walk, to your nearest bookstore, and pick up a copy of this marvelous new translation of a timeless work, our best, most lucid and fluent GILGAMESH to date." ocreviewofbooks.org/2026/04/19/sim…

READ BOOKS! (That’s it; that’s the tweet.)

Wonderful news from the world of books. Over the past five years, independent booksellers have surged in number by 70%. Last year alone, over 400 new indies opened their doors and began spilling joy into their communities. Here’s that story and more 👉 millersbookreview.com/p/bookish-dive…

I say this line by Cormac McCarthy in my head at least twice a week

@amjuster N.B: the bearded gent in that photo is the recently-retired, legendary and much-loved Norton sales rep, Dan Christiaens!

Some heavy lifting by #kingfisherbookstore in Coupeville WA: instagram.com/p/DW2b9qvjSv9/… #Petrarch

There's just something delicious about the culture shock experienced by Americans when they visit Europe for the first time, even more so when they visit the supposedly "gloomy and dangerous" eastern bit of it.

A new translation of Petrarch’s Canzoniere, by @amjuster, was published just over a week ago. @NRO had the privilege of reprinting a splendid sonnet in the latest issue of the magazine — Ars longa, vita brevis.

The paradox of aging. A version of The Ship of Theseus. He’s actually NOT “literally the guy in the pic.”

I keep seeing people complain that books are too expensive. They’re not. A hardcover copy of To Kill a Mockingbird cost $3.95 in 1960. In today's dollars, that's $43. You can buy the current hardcover for $27.99. Books aren't too expensive. They're 30–40% cheaper than inflation says they should be. They’re cheaper today than when Kennedy was president! Don’t blame books for being too expensive. Everything else is more expensive, and that’s why you can’t afford books. 👉 millersbookreview.com/p/no-books-are…

New essay: "Books Aren't Remotely Too Expensive." I spent years acquiring books for a living, and I can tell you exactly where your $28.99 goes. The retailer takes half. The author gets maybe $2.90—and doesn't see a penny until the advance earns out. The publisher's share has to cover editors, designers, proofreaders, marketers, warehousing, and shipping. Publishing runs a profit margin of about 13%, best case scenario. Nobody is getting rich selling you novels. 👉 millersbookreview.com/p/no-books-are…

In stores Sept 15th, available *now* for preorder: From Kristin Kobes Du Mez — the New York Times best-selling author of JESUS AND JOHN WAYNE — comes LIVE LAUGH LOVE: THE SECRET HISTORY OF WHITE CHRISTIAN WOMEN AND THE WORLD THEY MADE. Learn more: kristindumez.substack.com/p/announcingli…

“A tour de force full of interesting facts and findings that your self will be happy to have read and won’t forget” --Nicholas Epley, author of Mindwise bookbub.com/readworthy/boo…

Hot off the press, the toil of decades by @amjuster.

John Keats, on happiness in the moment (from letter to B. Bailey, 22 Nov. 1817)

@hairygit The poetry is its own reward, of course! I had this one memorized at age 18, and often repeat the last two lines to myself every so often (forty years later!).

Reading Hardy’s poems, and thinking I really should re-read his novels. There’s so much I read in my younger days that I know I did not take in adequately. Sadly, there just isn’t time to re-read them all.

Carl Sagan on books: "What an astonishing thing a book is. It’s a flat object made from a tree with flexible parts on which are imprinted lots of funny dark squiggles. But one glance at it and you’re inside the mind of another person, maybe somebody dead for thousands of years."

Friends & family in the Charlotte area, you know where to go now!

If you visit the store, come take a load off and sit in the leather chair at the back of the store that I bought in 1995 and loved for nearly three decades in my own home. Glad it has a *new* home at Watchung Books!

Congrats to my local bookstore--Watchung Booksellers--for this well-deserved honor! @watchungbooks @PublishersWkly publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/in…

I am grateful to @thedispatch & @NadyaWilliams81 for this kind roundup piece about my #Petrarch--and its incredibly flattering title! thedispatch.com/newsletter/dis… I'll be talking to Nadya soon on her podcast. @LiverightPub