Welcome to Litsy!

This was mostly surprisingly fun, explaining the whole thing via two parallel timelines that converged: first, the story of Wise's early entry into forgeries, and then on the other hand the stories of Pollard and Carter. There's a fair bit of creative reimagining, to attempt to bring it all to life.

Aside from the boo-boo about Sayers I wrote about earlier, I don't know of any other errors of fact, and it was pretty engaging.

Oof! Badly misattributes stuff in Dorothy L. Sayers, and of course I noticed. Claims that “an analytical chemist“ (Sir James Lubbock) finds “arsenic on the victim's shoe“ during The Unpleasantness of the Bellona Club. It's nothing of the kind: Wimsey goes to see him, Lubbock is finishing a previous job, and then says the bit Hone quotes about arsenic about *that*.

The sample from the shoe is paint, not arsenic.

Immediate eyebrow raising here.

Lots of illustrations, actually in colour too despite being in-line rather than those glossy sheafs of inserted images. I didn't love the snippets of fiction introducing each chapter; I understand their utility for some, but ugh, just get to the facts!

Most interesting fact: we don't think there really was an individual “scriptorium“ in most institutions. Book production probably just happened in cloisters.

Found out my daughter‘s field hockey practice is only a half mile walk from a used bookstore. Good thing this is the last practice. Couldn‘t resist this cozy with the unhinged cover.

Pre-exam brain is not making much headway with this right now, even though I find non-fiction soothing. Lots of history of Christianity, so far, which is pretty inevitable.

Instagram kept feeding this up to me as an ad and I bit the bullet, expecting it would be a bit of a disaster IF it ever arrived. But it did and it‘s gorgeous! I‘ve only been to a few, including this library in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. This is the perfect book to curl up with and daydream ❤️

This book looked great, but after an hour of the audio, I find myself not paying attention to it at all. I‘m not sure if it‘s me, the book, the timing, or the narrator. Maybe I‘ll try it again someday in print.

An informative and emotional history of one of my favorite indie bookstore: The King‘s English in Salt Lake City, Utah.

I grew up visiting this store, and it was a true delight to learn how it came to be and how it operates. I really appreciated reading of the difficulties they‘ve dealt with. And many big name authors have visited! Also many, many book lists to peruse and take notes on! 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑

I am enjoying this series. There a nice mix of serious issues alongside romance and humour, with a nice mix of likeable characters.

Book 35/60, Page 11,419/18,000 #Read2025 @DieAReader
#SeriesLove2025 @Andrew65 @TheSpineView