Started reading The Will of the Many by James Islington but set aside about a third of the way through. I’d bought a copy based solely on its cover and heft, but found myself disliking every character, none of whom seemed capable of uttering a simple true statement.

Got my flu shot, finally.

Meghan and I tried to go to the pub for our anniversary, but it was packed, so we ended up having pizza and a drink at Ridge in Greenwood.

Of course the weekend after posting about the months-long pattern of spam email dropping to near nothing on the weekend, I get a ton of spam email. Current spam hyperfixations include Costco, Omaha steaks, AAA, and Ace Hardware.

Finished reading The Dog of the South by Charles Portis. This was amazing; every character was such a weirdo, such a wild card, that I never knew what was going to happen next, and was just along for the ride. Portis treated each of them with respect, and the overall effect was maybe something like a less cruel, less political Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (meant in a good way).

One of the amusements I get from the current state of the internet is that sending spam email seems to be a Monday-to-Friday job.

Ran into Nathan and Miller and Bryan at the No Kings protest today.

Tonight’s kitchen victory: beef Bourguignon, sautéed butternut squash and kale (both from Amy’s farm), and garlicky baby potatoes.

Finished reading Emily Wilde’s Compendium of Lost Tales by Heather Fawcett. Probably the best of the now-three books, and I kind of hope it’s the last, because this feels like a good endpoint for Wilde’s story.

Finished reading Dead Lions by Mick Herron, the followup to Slow Horses. This had the same things going for it as the previous, including (which I didn’t mention) something of a sense of humor.

Bonus: This edition of this book only had a handful of typos, one inexplicable but most inconsequential.

Finished reading Papyrus: The Invention of Books in the Ancient World by Irene Vallejo, trans. Charlotte Whittle. This was a fascinating trip back to the birth of writing and, more importantly, of various forms of books, how they were copied, stored, sold, and valued, and a million short digressions, each of which Vallejo tied neatly back into the narrative. As usual, non-fiction meant slow reading, but it was quite good, and also has a lovely and witty index.

This book sung in a neat harmony with Ada Palmer’s Inventing the Renaissance, which looked back at the same authors and books from the other end of the timeline.

The kids and I got our covid shots yesterday, and Meghan got hers the day before. Easy here in Washington (the state has a standing order to ensure everybody has access).

The phrase “Butlerian Jihad” is being used around the house pretty regularly these days.

Tonight’s kitchen victory: bibimbap.