Bob Johnston

Happy Birthday to us! This month Unabridged Bookstore is celebrating 45 years of business and books!

Thank you so very much to all of our wonderful customers and friends, to our Lakeview neighbors, and to the literary community of Chicago for keeping Unabridged Bookstore going since 1980!

Strangely their being arseholes does not arise in this discussion.

Photo of Julian cope at electric picnic. He's sitting in a chair talking into a mic & wearing a black leather cap, leather waistcoat & black sunglasses

I met Julian Cope at Electric Picnic (he was doing a book event & I was bookseller) Loved Peggy Suicide album so was quite excited. He shook my hand wearing a large steel gauntlet which was quite painful. Good times.

A) Loved Falco. Taped it off the charts & kept rewinding because was sure he said "Monkey's nuts" at one point. B) I had the Chris de Burgh album. I was 13 and therefore exempt from judgement.

Collage of record covers

The final countdown. Check out all of Ireland's chart-topping singles of 1986 at Irish Number Ones (content warning: 'The Lady In Red') irishnumberones.com/by-date/#1986

Excellent as always, and a great highlight for @braciatrix.bsky.social’s annual reminder that brewsters do not equal witches…

A real test for politicians and gardaí.

There's been a years-long campaign of arson/attempted arson at IPAS centres - even buildings rumoured to be considered for asylum seekers.

We've had far-right instigated riots in our capital, at CityWest and Coolock; arson at TD's property... (1/2)

Doofus stood outside Mladota Palace (Czech: Mladotovský palác) better known as the Faust House (Czech: Faustův dům) is a mysterious house located in Charles Square, Prague, Czech Republic. It is a Baroque mansion from the 14th century

Here I am outside Prague's 'Faust House' the other night (photo by @johnnymains.co.uk). Elizabethan occultists John Dee and Edward Kelley stayed here in 1583 while trying to relay a message they had received from angels to Emperor Rudolf II, telling him to mend his ungodly ways. It didn't go well...

I'm gonna say Worzel Gummidge & the cast of Rentaghost yet I fear I may be somewhat behind the times...

A poster from what looks like the early 90s based on the hideous grey shiny suit showing a young denzel washington. The strapline says READ in big letters. Underneath it says Denzel Washington for America's Libraries. He' ssitting in an armchair. The resolution isn't great but I tHINK he's reading a dr seuss book.

A poster shows David bowie leaping in the air reading a book. He's wearing jeans and a lettermans jacket saying ROOTS. The book looks like a penguin classic and shows a man with a beard but the resolution isn't good enough to tell exactly which book. The header says READ and the smaller text on the poster says David Bowie for America's Libraries.

For the National Year of Reading, I'd like to see a publisher-neutral pro-reading campaign on the scale of the library one from the 80s and 90s please. Who would be your top choices of celebs to get kids reading now? Rights would be a nightmare but what a bout a k pop demon hunter drawn reading...

a woman in a white sweater says " i 'm fun " in black letters Alt: Gif of a woman saying " i'm fun "

Had a dream about how best to care for your kitchen wooden spoon. My subconscious is one big party. #bobsbrain

Eek!

Cover reveal for Piper at the Gates of Dusk (the new CHAOS WALKING book!) coming this Thursday…

A pac-man type character saying Feed me nappies, wipes, sanitary products & litter

Pac-Man has hit hard times 😪

Well done the Netherlands. They can be beaten

This was just posted by a CBS News producer on their Instagram stories.

It's a lovely Yellow Weather evening in Mayo... the fire is lit... #IrishWeather

He's been watching you ALL YEAR! Hurrah!

How exciting! A strange man is going to wander around your house while you're asleep!

Judge rules George R.R. Martin and other authors can sue OpenAI for copyright infringement

• Said ChatGPT generated 'Game of Thrones' content similar enough to infringe copyright

• OpenAI’s motion to dismiss was denied

Birdie by JP Rose

Day 30 of sharing my favourite Black authored books and today is one of my favourite kids books Birdie. This is about mixed heritage identity, pit ponies and families, all set in 1950s Yorkshire. It’s just stunning.

Photo of sign in hairdressers saying 'Hand Relief - €8.50 41ml, €26 121ml or get both for €29'.

Today's Facebook memory is the hairdressers on Parliament St, Dublin 2 who had a lovely innocent promotion a few years ago...

If you see this, post four female characters you love.

An Irish ghost turnip - Halloween Jack-o-Lantern, everytime I make one they look different … 😳

The original, the ur-turnip from Fintown, Co Donegal

Meme of 'large boulder the size of a small boulder'

It's a large turnip the size of a small turnip. Hope that helps.

honestly, just stop talking about other people's bodies

A púca for the season that's in it 👻

All prints of this one are hand-finished with gold paint, and they're also on sale (along with many other spooky prints) until the end of this month.

www.ciaraioch.com/artprints/p/...

Wind power has cut £104bn from UK energy costs since 2010, study finds Reduction comes from energy generated from windfarms and lower cost of gas owing to lower demand

In case you were wondering, it's not renewables that are making our energy prices so high. It's fossil fuels, and particularly gas. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

THREAD.
Some thoughts on moving a subscriber list away from Substack - for various reasons, some political, some personal, some about not wanting to give part of my income to venture capitalists - and something very very strange (and a little scary) that has happened as a result of it...