Dammit, another crappy day

A dawning realisation of the thing with social media, esp. with reading on a small screen device, is that for each instant just one topic consumes all your focus, no sense of significance vs. other topics … and it’s easy to get sucked down a hyperfocus special interest tunnel. Cf. random screenshot:

The English countryside in May is really something special to behold.

Yeah, sure, new books are great, but do you ever read old books? Have you ever read ‘American Pastoral’ by Philip Roth? It's his brilliant disembowelling of America in the 20th Century, and all its hopes of prosperity, civic order, and domestic bliss. drbslibrary.com/americanpast...

Yeah, sure, new books are great, but do you ever read old books? Have you ever read ‘Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy’, by John le Carré? It’s his classic spy novel of betrayal and living double lives. drbslibrary.com/tinkertailor

I absolutely love Komoot, the walking, hiking, cycling, whatever route app. I’ve lived in Birmingham for 30+ years, and with Komoot we keep discovering new and wonderful parts of the area that I’ve never known about, beautiful and breathtaking countryside all around. Fantastic.

Yeah, sure, new books are great, but do you ever read old books? Have you ever read 'The Third Policeman' by Flann O’Brien? It's a brilliantly absurd story of a village police force and a brief, unrequited love affair between a man and his bicycle. drbslibrary.com/thirdpoliceman

I presume British farmers are pivoting to growing rice this year …?

A canal bridge on the Tardebigge flight.

Have been reading Varoufakis's 'Technofeudlism' recently, which points to QE as a distinctive driver of massive alteration in tech stock valuation, when money was made available to bank to loan so biz's motive to create profit was taken away. Screenshot from finance.yahoo.com/news/buffett...

My reading year for 2025, via the @thestorygraph.com summary graphic. A pretty good year of great books. Looking forward to an interesting year ahead.

I’ve really enjoyed some good reading this month

Aah, such memories — my mother, calling up the stairs to us children: ‘Come and stir the Christmas Pudding and make a wish!’

My manly identity may be nearing completion at last, with this external validation arriving, unrequested, in the post

I finished reading 'Days Without End' by Sebastian Barry. One of my favourite authors, and here he goes back in time with the McNulty family to the US Indian War and Civil War, to their brutal realities made tender through the families we choose, and the love that chooses us. Great story.

I just finished reading ‘Playground’ by Richard Powers. An enjoyable read. So many interesting ideas and people … but I felt like there were so many of them that they were all crowding in to have their moment all the time and I never quite got to understand any of them well. Maybe that’s a me thing.

Covers over half the screen and doesn’t disappear when clicking either button

One of my ancestors won a Nobel peace prize. I find it incredibly offensive that a man who bragged about selling arms to Saudi Arabia (www.npr.org/2019/07/25/7...) then did it again (www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...) now wants one coz he bombed something then shouted at people to stop bombing.

I’m at a funeral today. Here’s a beautiful Wendell Berry poem, The Peace of Wild Things.

I heard you talking about 'The Queue' earlier today @mrjamesob.bsky.social (www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hri...) and it made me wonder whether you'd read Michael Sandel's 'The Tyranny of Merit', one of the most helpful books on this area of modern life that I've read, maybe ever. Taken from the blurb:

Really unconvinced by the latest update to the @theguardian.com iOS app — the promoted articles are half the screen, *so big*, so prominent, that the even first news headline is truncated. Seems kinda odd to make news subsidiary to opinion pieces. And can’t final any options for this layout. Sigh.

Magnolia blossom season is the most urgent, riotous burst of hope

I’m in Norwich for the day, ambling around and taking in the vibe and stuff while Mrs B does some actual work, examining music grades. Found a wonderful Middle Eastern café to relax in for a while.

My lovely brother bought me breakfast today. They call this ‘The Full French’.

On a walk today in the Warwickshire countryside, 100 miles or more from the nearest sea. The boat is called ‘High Tide’ but I don’t recall any quite that big in the 30ish years I’ve lived up here.

Mmm. Espresso while reading the latest draft and considering how far it’s improved

A delightful afternoon walk yesterday on Candlemas, the day for marking the returning light. Our walk finished at sunset, at just the perfect moment.