John McQuillen

Very excited about this 1783 book from Puebla, Mexico in a fantastic local gold-tooled binding with stenciled paper endleaves. Morgan Library & Museum, PML 199739.

Got this wonderfully ridiculous piece of Gracetone pottery from eBay. The pedestal base broke off in shipping but thankfully it’s meant to be glued on.

Coldest days of the year (windchill between -5 and -20F) and the apartment building is out of heating oil: no heat or hot water. Good times.

I’ll stop by to say hello while you’re at the Morgan tomorrow.

Reading list for the next week off from work. #booksky

What??? What did I do?

Just to be clear, I didn’t do this.

What a fantastic read!! And very prescient for the current time. #booksky #history #detectivestory

Working in the library this morning.

Showed off some Chaucer today.

Fun! What’s happen across the top two lines…a hole or uninked type?

Persuaded!!

Excited about my little pre-birthday gift of two monk candle holders from Frankoma Pottery.

Excited to see my little contribution to scholarship on the Gutenberg Bible. #booksky #rarebooks

Very excited, as you can tell, about our new painting by Todd Koelmel. No, I really am excited.

Enjoying a quiet morning

I love furious Googling. I would have never guessed that was an early 19c hand; I’d have guessed at least 100 years earlier and been way off.

I really enjoyed @stuartbennettbooks historical fiction series of time-travel, Jane Austen, Shakespeare, and sea voyages…with a few lost Shakespeare and Austen manuscripts thrown in for good measure. Not my normal schtick but very worthwhile. #BookSky

Trying a new look. #swoveralls

One of my favorite local views on this lovely, foggy day.

Spooky fog last night…the only thing to make the neighbor sitting in his driveway with his headlights beaming at our house for 20 minutes bearable.

Happy Holigays! 🏳️‍🌈 🏳️‍⚧️

There’s about a month left to submit an abstract to Queer Bibliography 2025 in Newcastle! See you there?

Info below 👇🏻

Ah, once again an empty house!!

And what did you get for Christmas?

Food poisoning.

(Not me, but my brother…and it wasn’t my cooking.)

How many times can you go to the grocery store at Christmas??? It’s not even Christmas Eve yet!!

Ugh. Straight men go to the grocery store once a year—at Christmas—and are clearly very confused by this process and ruin it for the rest of us who know how to buy groceries.

Morning and evening: Washington Heights sunrise and Hudson River sunset from Amtrak (sorry about the reflection).

Perhaps it’s time to get rid of the pen they gave us for getting a 5 on the art history AP exam in 1995!!!!!!

First post: first day back at work after Thanksgiving break and apparently people forgot what our jobs were while I was away. I’d like to say I was surprised.