I am with you. There's also the newish genre of "author notes" for fiction, which allows blowhards to blow harder.

I am a fan of this genre.

Thank you so much, dear Charlie!

I think it's backordered a few places, but that should be remedied soon: it is, rather astonishingly to me, in its third printing.

Thank you!

Then including A Long Game in their year-end list.

www.ocregister.com/2025/12/18/4...

Thank you, Edward!

That honestly was my goal! I want people to put it down over and over. Thank you!

Matt! Oh my heavens, thank you so much. I'm very happ that you like it.

Wow! This is an amazing shop! Thank you!

He's a matcha fan! How did you know?

Thank you so much, Patricia!

Anyhow, I wanted to sing Austin's praises, & to explain that to my knowledge Dean Young never recorded Being Alive. I had a blast answering these questions. & I love knowing Austin, & spotting his books in every museum gift shop I ever visit.

austinkleon.substack.com/p/typewriter...

It was in the middle of the night that I answered Austin's thoughtful questions, & instead of Dean Jones, I said that I often listened to Dean Young's Being Alive. (Dean Young is my late colleague at the University of Texas.)

The other subconscious reason I didn't post this is because I absentmindedly got Dean Jones's name wrong, in answering a question about music. I listen to his version of Being Alive all the time.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=am8q...

(At the time, way back in November, I owned an IBM Selectric, which I intended to use, but when I tried it I discovered that somehow the platen, or the knobs on both sides, were bent.)