Ruth Barber

I'm now on Fable book app - feel free to follow me there - and have imported all my book reviews from Goodreads. Goodreads was always a terrible app, plus it's owned by Amazon.

Invertebrate of the year 2025: vote for your favourite Since February we’ve gone in search of the invertebrate of the year. Now it’s your chance to choose

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Vote for the beast that may be as ruthlessly predatory as us – the fen raft spider With a leg-span the size of your hand, the UK’s biggest spider, ultra-rare and known for its extraordinary hunting skills, has many admirers

My spirit animal

Looking forward to reading the latest issue from the British Library Weird Tales subscription

Busy spring cleaning this weekend

It's spelt "Whistleblower." You're welcome.

if you buy used books and want to avoid amazon where possible, check out bookfinder.com

you can search essentially every marketplace in one go

so you can, e.g., find the same used copy for sale, from the same seller, on biblio.com or ebay instead of amazon or abe (owned by amazon)

Absolutely love "Less than zero" and "The Shards" by Bret Easton Ellis. I'm actually not sure why because his style is an over descriptive stream of consciousness narration. It may be because I grew up in the 80s and the setting is comfortingly familiar. I love the nihilism and implied criticism.

Can anyone comment on the merits of Substack v Ghost platforms?

The spacecraft apparently had an "incorrect attitude...."

Hi. Cool video

Can anyone recommend a book review site other than Goodreads? The site has always been glitchy and feels like the design hasn't been refreshed or revised since the 90s. And it's owned by Amazon. I'd like to find a review site that isn't owned by a company that sells books.

I submitted at about 8pm last night. I've received a receipt for my payment but not my submission. Should I have one?

A spoof of an infographic showing a map of Europe, colour-coded by which countries will offer food to visitors. The caption is "Will the detective investigating your murder be sad?" The Nordic territories are labelled "sad", Northern Europe is labelled "sad & wet", Eastern Europe, Southern France and Northern Italy are labelled "sad and drunk" and the Mediterranean nations are labelled "sexy". It's less funny when you explain it, to be honest.

Will the detective investigating your murder be sad?

I signed up for the British Library weird tales subscription service. You get a new gothic novel or anthology every month. I'm on "Queens of Pulp Fiction" this month. Some are better than others but it's fun getting a new book through the post every month.

I finally stopped using Amazon a few months ago, and it's been so much easier than I imagined