John Williams

@johnwilliams

I write about books and edit others’ writing about books, previously for NY Times and Washington Post. Apollonian/Order Muppet. Highly sociable misanthrope. (Photo: Larry McMurtry's Booked Up, 2018.)

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John Williams@johnwilliams· 11d

An image of Sigmund and the Sea Monsters, for those old enough to remember.

John Williams@johnwilliams· 13d

This one always bothers me. I guess it’s somewhere between on the list and not on the list.

“BARDO” not accepted by the New York Times game Spelling Bee.

John Williams@johnwilliams· 15d

Onion headline that originally said “report: that’s enough soccer for now” updated by me to say “report: that’s enough Odyssey for now.” (Please send help.)

John Williams@johnwilliams· 15d

Thank you for putting this on my radar, it's so great. ("I wish I was a chocolate-covered flying horse / I wish the boys were pigs except my brother." !!) I have this book on the opposite end of the spectrum, about Koch teaching seniors.

A copy of "I Never Told Anybody: Teaching Poetry Writing in a Nursing Home" by Kenneth Koch.

John Williams@johnwilliams· 16d

This really does seem like the most anyone can promise these days.

“Less nausea” on an outdoor ad for a weight loss drug

John Williams@johnwilliams· 18d

This list is indistinguishable from parody.

The seemingly 500 places you are "able to watch" a 2020 movie, including "Tvlgle" and "VIVA by videofutur."

John Williams@johnwilliams· 24d

Huh.

John Williams@johnwilliams· Jul 11

In two very different tones of voice... On the court: "Wow, LeBron still doing it at 41." Off the court: "Wow, LeBron still doing it at 41."

Headline from The Athletic: "What we're hearing about LeBron James' decision and the role of Rich Paul's podcast."

John Williams@johnwilliams· Jul 9

As the saying goes: I am so very tired.

John Williams@johnwilliams· Jul 8

This is great. And may I look this happy/delightfully surprised at least one more time in this life.

A young boy, having turned to see that Erling Haaland is in front of him, looking like the platonic ideal of happiness. Another boy next to him, having already greeted Haaland, looking no less delighted.

John Williams@johnwilliams· Jul 8

One nice thing about free agent season is that it alerts you to the very existence of some players. Some players who will now earn in three years more money than you will see in several lifetimes.

Someone named Quinten Post, God bless him, is going to make $30 million over three years, or about $8M for every rebound he's averaged in his brief career.

John Williams@johnwilliams· Jul 7

Funny little echo of Rhys; I just now happened to flip open Diana Athill's publishing memoir "Stet" (life is thrilling over here) to this passage:

“Here we settled down to enjoy the sixties which were, indeed, good years for us; although they never seemed to me essentially different from any other decade. Perhaps they would have done if I had been younger and still fully responsive to the pull of fashion, but as it was I saw them as an invention of the media. Most of the people I knew had been bedding each other for years without calling it a sexual revolution. Jean Rhys agreed, saying that people were using drugs like crazy when she first came to London before the First World War, the only difference being that the papers didn't go on about it. But of course the fact that we now felt that we had finished recovering from the second world war did make for cheerfulness.”

John Williams@johnwilliams· Jul 7

From a piece by Vivian Gornick in The New Republic, 2023. newrepublic.com/article/1695...

A year or two from death, Rhys cried out at her friend, the novelist David Plante, “Oh David, I’m unhappy … all my life I’ve been so unhappy. It’s unfair … I’m dying, my body’s dying, and inside I think: it’s unfair. I’ve never lived, I’ve never lived.” But then she wiped her eyes, had another drink, and said to Plante, “Listen to me, I want to tell you something very important. All of writing is a huge lake. There are great rivers that feed the lake, like Tolstoy and Dostoevsky. And there are trickles, like Jean Rhys. All that matters is feeding the lake.… It is very important. Nothing else is important.”

John Williams@johnwilliams· Jul 4

Interested in this issue myself. And the cover art made me remember a headline/image from a long-ago satirical newspaper out of Massachusetts:

John Williams@johnwilliams· Jul 4

Posted these on the cursed place nine months before he was even elected the first time, so the left-hand image feels downright quaint. But re-upping in an attempt to think about the other half of the dichotomy as much as possible today.

John Williams@johnwilliams· Jul 4

She is simply too good.

My recently finished copy of A Misalliance by Anita Brookner.

John Williams@johnwilliams· Jun 28

Jesus take the wheel.

John Williams@johnwilliams· Jun 24

This is a very solid and redolent stretch of ‘90s.

Five consecutive songs off of Belly’s album “King” — Silverfish, Super-Connected, The Bees, King, Now They’ll Sleep.

John Williams@johnwilliams· Jun 23

Didn’t post this yesterday since it contains an important word they took, but why not this?

“ALCHEMICAL” not accepted by Spelling Bee

John Williams@johnwilliams· Jun 22

Noah Wyle did not waste his time in the Criterion Closet.

20 movies discussed by Wyle in his Criterion Closet clip.

John Williams@johnwilliams· Jun 22

Listening to and enjoying this for the first time in a while. And a bit transfixed by the cover art.

John Williams@johnwilliams· Jun 20

You inspired me to finish gathering mine (or most of them) for a group photo.

John Williams@johnwilliams· Jun 19

Hold my calls.

Hermione Lee’s forthcoming bio of my queen Anita Brookner.

John Williams@johnwilliams· Jun 19

Better late than never. Brilliant prose and almost insane levels of psychological and social observation combine to go nuclear here. What an incredible book. Goes on the modestly sized but very potent shelf labeled “why bother to write.”

John Williams@johnwilliams· Jun 17

Found a great product review this morning.

John Williams@johnwilliams· Jun 17

I have an older edition that I’ve now taken down and added to the (literal) TBR pile. Thanks for the nudge.

John Williams@johnwilliams· Jun 12

Genuinely love when I look up a longer trip while still on “walking directions.” A reminder that life could be much more interesting.

A map for walking from just north of New York City to Rhode Island (2 days, 11 hours). Would probably stop at even more bookstores this way.

John Williams@johnwilliams· Jun 3

Indeed.

"Many people feel that LLMs are a fundamentally unethical technology because they are built on the theft of intellectual property, rely on exploited labor, waste natural resources, spread misinformation, deskill workers, stunt the cognitive development of students, and contribute to a consolidation of power that is unhealthy for a democratic society." -- Ted Chiang in The Atlantic

John Williams@johnwilliams· May 31

Some people: Threads is capable of sustaining life. Threads every time I visit it: