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—¿Crees que tendremos un final feliz?
—No existen los finales felices. Solo continuidad.
Y a veces eso basta para seguir respirando bajo la lluvia.
https://fictograma.com/d/3023-eventos-anomalos-capitulo-de-relleno-ndeg-17
Hay personas que te miran como si fueras invisible.
Y luego hay gatos gigantes que aparecen en un patio y se convierten en el acontecimiento más importante de...
https://fictograma.com/d/3024-la-vida-en-un-ratito-cronicas-de-lo-cotidiano-relatos-3-y-4
Ali Smith wins the 2026 Dublin Literary Award for her novel GLIFF
“Through the eyes of two young protagonists navigating an increasingly authoritarian society, we are reminded that courage is not always loud, but it is always consequential. At a moment when democracy across the world can too often feel fragile, this novel is a powerful reminder that freedom, dignity and democratic values should never be taken for granted.”
Make It Simple: Easy, Speedy Sewing Projects to Stitch Up in an Afternoon by Tilly Walnes #books #literature #dedication

The World Without Us is a 2007 non-fiction work by Alan Weisman. It postulates what could happen if human beings were to suddenly disappear form the face of the planet (Earth, not Jupiter or anything).
Analogous to that famous work, but more heavily focussed toward automotives, is The World Without Buses (2008).
Written by a bus driver called Barry Smith from Bolton of Greater Manchester, it postulates what would happen to society if buses suddenly ceased to be. It’s a terrifying work, Barry’s magnum opus, and it’s so profound we fouled ourselves whilst reading the book.
“The only thing keeping modern civilization from collapsing is a double-decked Stagecoach bus. Those vinyl seat covers, consistent timetables, and cost-effective prices breed a righteous sense of cosmic security. Within that security there lies dormant the harsh reality that, one day, the bus may move beyond merely being late, moreover, buses my have a cessation of their being and all will be lost. A stranded humanity… the 501 to Preston isn’t going to arrive and we all have to accept that.”
This horrifying opening paragraph sets the scene. The 501 to Preston and, indeed, ALL buses aren’t going to be turning up at their, respective, bus stops. This is because buses no longer exists.
A conundrum of immense portent. Barry Smith argues the average person, when faced with this reality, would consider:
Smith stresses walking would be a last resort as:
“Most people are so stunningly lazy they won’t even bother reading this book.”
Smith dubs the busless world as The Great Stranding. With tens of millions of people worldwide without access to a bus/coach, businesses would hit major financial repercussions and several would burst into flames at random.
The writer then argues a Bolton of Greater Manchester Containment Zone would have to be established for busless refugees, many of whom would get lost when attempting to navigate their way around minus a handy bus. However, towns and cities would soon be overrun by jungles as unused bus lanes would become overgrown with rare flora and the like, with lions, elephants, and zebras descending into the bus lane jungles and merging alongside regular.
Smith argues this busless world would be:
“Truly shit.”
And that:
“In this horrifying new world I’d be out of work, too, although that won’t matter if this book becomes a bestseller. Because then I can become a writer, my other idea, beyond this pseudoscience rambling, is a horror series of bus books in the style of Stephen King meets 50 Shades of Gray. Then I’d have that career and a busless world wouldn’t bother me that much then to be honest.”
Across 500 rambling pages, Smith continues in this way. We found it to be riveting! Just think about this concept: if your local bus route CEASED TO BE.
We find the idea so terrifying we’ve taken to going to bed with all the lights on, whilst playing bus noises like these on YouTube to act as a safety blanket.
Smith’s book is a work of genius. We’re 97.5% certain of that. You should read it and try to comprehend how society is only ever one bus stop away from total, hellish collapse.
Train drivers responded angrily and in droves to The Would Without Buses. An angry mob of enraged train drivers stormed Bolton town centre a week after the book’s launch in August 2008. A total of £350s worth of damage was done to the town centre as a polite riot began, with train drivers kicking bins over and piddling in the street.
Local police responded by deploying water cannons and the train drivers were soon blasted into submission.
34 were jailed, with 17 of them receiving life sentences. As of 2026, 10 remain behind bars and are unlikely to see a bus or train ever again.
#Books #Bus #Buses #Humor #Lifestyle #Literature #Philosophy #PublicTransport #Satire #satirical #Science #Silly #TransportPeter and Beatrice Leigh are 30-something British couple who are devoutly evangelical Christians and are living in a Britain of an imagined near future. In this imaginary Britain things look largely similar to how they are right now, except that there’s a colony of humans living on a faraway planet called Oasis. These pioneers are eking out a civilisation and trying to engage with local alien life there.
Enter Peter Leigh, a devout pastor on earth, who is hand-picked to join the small crew on the distant planet for a diplomatic mission to civilise and convert the alien population, whom he dubs Oasans. Meanwhile Peter’s wife Beatrice is left to her own devices on an increasingly turbulent and unpredictable Earth.
This novel by Michel Faber, (I have reviewed other books of his before) is completely astonishing and amazing. I have to admit that I’m not a fan of sci-fi and avoided reading this one for a while. As Michel Faber is a wonderful wordsmith and one of my favourite authors of all time, any reservations I had about this novel were swiftly put to bed. It’s deftly and masterfully written, by an author who can completely allow you to suspend your belief system and enjoy an amazing yarn about what it means to be human and all of the spectrum of human emotions that haunt us.
The book strangely enough doesn’t read like science fiction, even though it’s set on another planet. It’s a novel that’s relevant to the human condition as War and Peace or Anna Karenina.
The Book of Strange New Things is endlessly compelling and you won’t be able to put it down. I have avoided all spoilers here except to say that the unspooling and unravelling of Peter and Beatrice Leigh’s relationship is like watching a couple of very likeable humans failing, having blind spots and being exceptionally beautiful and beautifully ugly at the same time. It’s incredible, powerful and moving. It’s also unlike any other novel I’ve ever read before in my life. I recommend you get this for your summer or (if you’re in the northern hemisphere) your winter reading.

Donate to my Ko Fi #BookReview #books #literature #love #MichelFaber #space #SpaceExploration #words
"Hell is one of the most versatile nouns in the dataset. However, most of them have nothing to do with hell itself."
Russell Samora and Shelly Tan for The Pudding: https://pudding.cool/2026/05/similes/
#Longreads #Language #Words #Simile #FigureOfSpeech #Communication #Literature #Fiction
holy shit!!! too bad i burned out on the cozy #mystery #book genre! one of my goodreads groups revealed that there are golden girls cozy mysteries books, starring the girls!! hmm, i'll pick thhem up if i ever get back into that genre someday! blessed!!!! #books #bookstodon #literature
I see the old woman behind the flowering broom.
I have followed her from poem to poem …
—Iain Crichton Smith, “Old Woman”
published in Deer on the High Hills: Selected Poems (Carcanet, 2021)
https://www.carcanet.co.uk/9781800170940/deer-on-the-high-hills/
The Scottish anthropologist who inspired Dracula
“More decidedly evil is the nosferatu, or vampire, in which every Roumanian peasant believes as firmly as he does in heaven or hell…”
—from Emily Gerard’s THE LAND BEYOND THE FOREST: Facts, Figures, & Fancies from Transylvania (1888). Her work was a key part of Bram Stoker’s research materials for Dracula.
Today, 26 May, is Dracula Day 🧛♂️
1/3
https://crimereads.com/the-scottish-anthropologist-who-inspired-dracula/
#Scottish #literature #Romania #vampire #folklore #anthropology #DraculaDay
“Writing ran in the family. Her younger sister, Dorothea, was also a talented novelist. Her maternal grandfather was the prolific writer & inventor Sir John Robison, & other ancestors were noted philosophical or theological authors”
🧛♂️
2/3
https://blog.historicenvironment.scot/2024/10/emily-gerard/
#Scottish #literature #Romania #vampire #folklore #anthropology #DraculaDay
You can download Emily Gerard’s THE LAND BEYOND THE FOREST: Facts, Figures, & Fancies from Transylvania (1888) – the book that helped inspire Bram Stoker to write Dracula – as a free ebook from @gutenberg_org
🧛♂️
3/3
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/57168
#Scottish #literature #Romania #vampire #folklore #anthropology #DraculaDay
Weird Tales vol 8 number 2 (August 1926) - featured story: The Woman of the Wood by A. Merritt
#Literature #SciFi #ScienceFiction #books #bookstodon #coverart #bookart #bookcovers
#AMerritt
@books @scifi @Scifiart @sciencefiction
Art by C. Petrie
Mrs Bram Stoker’s recipe for “Dracula Salad” – a bit of an oxymoron? – published in CRUDEN RECIPES & WRINKLES (Cruden Parish Church, 1912), & contributed shortly after Bram Stoker’s death. Via Mike Shepherd on Facebook
🧛♂️
https://www.facebook.com/groups/scotlit/posts/10161485849160090/
#Literature #Dracula #recipes #salad #DraculaDay #BramStoker
“[Mike] Shepherd… believes the author deliberately pinpointed Cruden Bay, north of Aberdeen—then called Port Erroll, a small fishing village with a sandy beach & a windswept cliff-top fort named Slains Castle—as a retreat where he could concentrate on his writing”
Died this day: 05/26/2013 (b. 08/28/1916)
Jack Vance was an American science fiction writer. The Last Castle (1967) won the Hugo and Nebula Awards.
"Galaxy Science Fiction," April 1966, Featured story: "The Last Castle" by Jack Vance
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Vance
#Literature #SciFi #ScienceFiction #books #bookstodon #coverart #bookart #bookcovers
#JackVance @books @scifi @Scifiart @sciencefiction
Art by Jack Gaughan
BULL. A crown piece. A half bull; half a crown.
A selection from Francis Grose’s “Dictionary Of The Vulgar Tongue” (1785)
--
#books #literature #dictionaries #history #society #language #slang @histodons
#OTD in 1897. First publication of Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Let's celebrate #DraculaDay!
The novel was mostly written in the 1890s, and Stoker produced over a hundred pages of notes, drawing extensively from folklore and history. He probably found the name "Dracula" in Whitby's public library while on holiday, selecting it because he thought it meant 'devil' in Romanian.
Dracula at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/345
Nice White Ladies: The Truth About White Supremacy, Our Role in It, and How We Can Help Dismantle It by Jessie Daniels #books #literature #dedication
How Henry James Became the American Giant of English Literature
The life of Henry James, who left America for a cosmopolitan life in Europe before settling in England and contributing multiple masterpieces to its literature.
by Dr. Victoria C. Roskams
https://www.thecollector.com/henry-james-english-literature/
Books by Henry James at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/113
Hallazgo. Poema de Rolando Enrique Rosales Murga. Sus poemas en su voz. #bookstagram #bookstagrammer #bookstagramespañol #reseñaliteraria #guatemala502 #Jutiapa #poeta #Guatemala #literatura #libros #gothic #Kindle #kindle #explorepage #amazonkdp #amazonkindle #gothicstyle #poetry #poemas #verso #lirica #gothicfashion #literature #poetry #viral #viralvideo #viralvideos #ViralPost
Sin título. Poema de Rolando Enrique Rosales Murga. Sus poemas en su voz #bookstagram #bookstagrammer #rolandoenriquerosalesmurga #guatemala502 #Jutiapa #poeta #Guatemala #literatura #libros #gothic #Kindle #kindle #explorepage #amazonkdp #amazonkindle #gothicstyle #poetry #poemas #verso #lirica #gothicfashion #literature #poetry #viral #viralvideo #viralvideos #ViralPost
Cryptic. Poem by Rolando Enrique Rosales Murga. His poems in his own voice. #bookstagram #bookstagrammer #bookstagramespañol #reseñaliteraria #guatemala502 #Jutiapa #poeta #Guatemala #literatura #libros #gothic #Kindle #kindle #explorepage #amazonkdp #amazonkindle #gothicstyle #poetry #poemas #verso #lirica #gothicfashion #literature #poetry #viral #viralvideo #viralvideos #ViralPost
Críptico. Poema de Rolando Enrique Rosales Murga. Sus poemas en su voz #bookstagram #bookstagrammer #rolandoenriquerosalesmurga #guatemala502 #Jutiapa #poeta #Guatemala #literatura #libros #gothic #Kindle #kindle #explorepage #amazonkdp #amazonkindle #gothicstyle #poetry #poemas #verso #lirica #gothicfashion #literature #poetry #viral #viralvideo #viralvideos #ViralPost
The Deserter. A Gothic Tale By Rolando Enrique Rosales Murga. His poems in his own voice. #bookstagram #bookstagrammer #bookstagramespañol #reseñaliteraria #guatemala502 #Jutiapa #poeta #Guatemala #literatura #libros #gothic #Kindle #kindle #explorepage #amazonkdp #amazonkindle #gothicstyle #poetry #poemas #verso #lirica #gothicfashion #literature #poetry #viral #viralvideo #viralvideos #ViralPost
El desertor. Cuento gótico de Rolando Enrique Rosales Murga. Sus poemas en su voz #bookstagram #bookstagrammer #rolandoenriquerosalesmurga #guatemala502 #Jutiapa #poeta #Guatemala #literatura #libros #gothic #Kindle #kindle #explorepage #amazonkdp #amazonkindle #gothicstyle #poetry #poemas #verso #lirica #gothicfashion #literature #poetry #viral #viralvideo #viralvideos #ViralPost
Twisted Ideas. A Tale Of Horror by Rolando Enrique Rosales Murga. His poems in his own voice. #bookstagram #bookstagrammer #bookstagramespañol #reseñaliteraria #guatemala502 #Jutiapa #poeta #Guatemala #literatura #libros #gothic #Kindle #kindle #explorepage #amazonkdp #amazonkindle #gothicstyle #poetry #poemas #verso #lirica #gothicfashion #literature #poetry #viral #viralvideo #viralvideos #ViralPost
Ideas torcidas. Un cuento de terror de Rolando Enrique Rosales Murga. Sus poemas en su voz #bookstagram #bookstagrammer #rolandoenriquerosalesmurga #guatemala502 #Jutiapa #poeta #Guatemala #literatura #libros #gothic #Kindle #kindle #explorepage #amazonkdp #amazonkindle #gothicstyle #poetry #poemas #verso #lirica #gothicfashion #literature #poetry #viral #viralvideo #viralvideos #ViralPost
Dein Weg zurück zu dir. Hm. Seltsame Worte, oder? Du bist doch schon bei dir. Was soll das also? Tja, du DENKST vielleicht, dass du bei dir bist.
https://www.epubli.com/shop/dein-weg-dein-weg-zurueck-zu-dir-9783565430338
#selbstfindung #weg #psychology #psychologie #ebook #buch #literature #literatur #frieden #wahrheit #wandel #zeit