Amanda Watson
@amndw2.bsky.social
Librarian, literature geek, knitter, opera fan, book history person. Writing a book about commonplace books and poetry readers. Opinions here are my own. She/her/hers. Queer and furious. 🏳️🌈
Phase 1 of Operation Fruitcake 2025 is a go: a big bowl of dried fruit and citrus zest is ready to spend the night soaking in rum.
November 24, 2025 at 3:04 AM
Phase 1 of Operation Fruitcake 2025 is a go: a big bowl of dried fruit and citrus zest is ready to spend the night soaking in rum.
Oh no, anything but a trend! 🏹
November 20, 2025 at 3:34 PM
Oh no, anything but a trend! 🏹
Book history in the wild: came across this early C19 (1830s) German philology periodical in our library stacks the other day. Check out the binder’s waste under the spine! Possibly from a directory or similar?
November 19, 2025 at 8:55 PM
Book history in the wild: came across this early C19 (1830s) German philology periodical in our library stacks the other day. Check out the binder’s waste under the spine! Possibly from a directory or similar?
Current status: intermission conversation about how half the characters in this opera are queer in one way or another.
November 19, 2025 at 1:57 AM
Current status: intermission conversation about how half the characters in this opera are queer in one way or another.
I'd almost forgotten just how fun this production is.
November 13, 2025 at 4:03 AM
I'd almost forgotten just how fun this production is.
It’s almost Sonnambula time!
October 24, 2025 at 10:59 PM
It’s almost Sonnambula time!
Somehow I refrained from adopting an angora rabbit:
October 19, 2025 at 7:09 PM
Somehow I refrained from adopting an angora rabbit:
It was a lovely day to be out in the Hudson Valley impulse-buying yarn and admiring these absolute units:
October 19, 2025 at 7:05 PM
It was a lovely day to be out in the Hudson Valley impulse-buying yarn and admiring these absolute units:
“It was, as you might suppose, a person of antiquarian pursuits who said this, but, since he merely appears in this prologue, there is no need to give his entitlements.” MRJ invented Sir Not-Appearing-in-This-Film nearly a century before Monty Python? 😱
October 11, 2025 at 1:00 PM
“It was, as you might suppose, a person of antiquarian pursuits who said this, but, since he merely appears in this prologue, there is no need to give his entitlements.” MRJ invented Sir Not-Appearing-in-This-Film nearly a century before Monty Python? 😱
“The Mezzotint”: the first, but by no means the last, of the stories where James makes fun of his fellow academics for their love of golf. 😱
October 3, 2025 at 5:42 PM
“The Mezzotint”: the first, but by no means the last, of the stories where James makes fun of his fellow academics for their love of golf. 😱
The Black-Mirror-esque “Friend” campaign continues to meet with scorn from New Yorkers (not pictured: a crew of workers hanging fresh not-yet-graffitied Friend ads in this station).
October 1, 2025 at 2:44 PM
The Black-Mirror-esque “Friend” campaign continues to meet with scorn from New Yorkers (not pictured: a crew of workers hanging fresh not-yet-graffitied Friend ads in this station).
October is somehow right around the corner, which means I'm hauling out the M.R. James stories in anticipation of our #bsbookclub read-along. I've had the battered old World's Classics edition since I was a teenager; the Collected came out from Oxford UP in 2011. 😱🌰🪞🫏🚀🐋🛖💐🪛🔩
September 21, 2025 at 11:21 PM
October is somehow right around the corner, which means I'm hauling out the M.R. James stories in anticipation of our #bsbookclub read-along. I've had the battered old World's Classics edition since I was a teenager; the Collected came out from Oxford UP in 2011. 😱🌰🪞🫏🚀🐋🛖💐🪛🔩
I hope your day goes better! Here’s a friendly squirrel I met in the park recently:
September 16, 2025 at 2:03 PM
I hope your day goes better! Here’s a friendly squirrel I met in the park recently:
The spammers who keep making my inbox look like this are cordially invited to fuck all the way off into the sun.
September 14, 2025 at 12:56 AM
The spammers who keep making my inbox look like this are cordially invited to fuck all the way off into the sun.
Fire Island being its magical self this afternoon (not pictured: a flock of sanderlings chasing the waves further up the beach)
August 31, 2025 at 10:59 PM
Fire Island being its magical self this afternoon (not pictured: a flock of sanderlings chasing the waves further up the beach)
Greetings from Fire Island on the last beach day of summer.
August 31, 2025 at 5:38 PM
Greetings from Fire Island on the last beach day of summer.
Dante Alighieri, Lord Byron, and Ezra Pound would all like a word with the Spelling Bee editors.
August 28, 2025 at 11:48 AM
Dante Alighieri, Lord Byron, and Ezra Pound would all like a word with the Spelling Bee editors.
Good afternoon to everyone but especially to this elegant cat, who was hanging out as I passed by on a lunchtime walk.
August 26, 2025 at 6:28 PM
Good afternoon to everyone but especially to this elegant cat, who was hanging out as I passed by on a lunchtime walk.
I kind of wish I’d seen this production live, but on the other hand it was a real pleasure to watch Susanna Mälkki conduct in close-up on a big screen.
August 25, 2025 at 2:40 AM
I kind of wish I’d seen this production live, but on the other hand it was a real pleasure to watch Susanna Mälkki conduct in close-up on a big screen.
Time for the annual end-of-summer ritual of catching a Met HD rebroadcast on Lincoln Center Plaza (naturally I had to grab an OPERA FAN fan).
August 24, 2025 at 11:45 PM
Time for the annual end-of-summer ritual of catching a Met HD rebroadcast on Lincoln Center Plaza (naturally I had to grab an OPERA FAN fan).
I always appreciate when The Gilded Age returns to the opera house (sadly, this scene involved no actual opera).
August 11, 2025 at 3:09 AM
I always appreciate when The Gilded Age returns to the opera house (sadly, this scene involved no actual opera).