James Crossley
LightNews LightNews
banner
jamescrossley.bsky.social
James Crossley
@jamescrossley.bsky.social
410 followers 360 following 190 posts
Founder and genius loci of Leviathan Bookstore in St. Louis. Utterer of strange and dangerous nonsense to please the bats at the back of his soul.
Posts Replies Media Videos
jamescrossley.bsky.social
Such a headspinningly good read
They say literature is made out of other literature and that if you write something new, for example, it would amount to gibberish; no one alive would be able to understand it. Can write technically correct prose in my native language, but I could never compose Russian literature because, for better or worse, the literature I know most intimately is part of the American canon. Even British literature, with the exception of Robert Burns, sounds like Beowulf to me. (Moby-Dick-less.) There’s no Nathaniel West in British, no Casey at the Bat, or joy in Mudville. Every word has to have a lineage in the history of the language that makes it mean what it means.
December 3, 2025 at 3:34 PM
jamescrossley.bsky.social
Text generated by a Zohran Mamdani meme generator reading This is my substitute for pistol and ball
November 9, 2025 at 6:51 PM
jamescrossley.bsky.social
Do you want to address this with George Saunders, @notpodium.bsky.social ?
Text reads: The door (immense, heavy, dead-bolted) presented no meaningful impediment. A assign through, I emerged into a magnificent entryway, then ascended a spacious stairwell lined with image after image of my charge: Leaning confidently against a podium, speaking to a tremendous crowd. Squatting with a kaffiyeh-wearing fellow before the Great Pyramid of Giza.
September 28, 2025 at 7:32 PM
jamescrossley.bsky.social
Gonna try to dangle some bait for @levistahl.bsky.social in my next newsletter.
Text from a book page reading “He went in to Wisconsin as state geologist at last, to die, not of disease, but of some subtle wearing-away process that baffled his doctors.”
April 29, 2025 at 4:26 PM
jamescrossley.bsky.social
I’m probably the last to tell you about the @usrofc.bsky.social shortlist, but I’m proud to have had something to do with all the titles on it.
March 6, 2025 at 9:55 PM
jamescrossley.bsky.social
Welcome to the club. It does almost have an air of Blue Velvet about it, doesn’t it?
A TV shows the title card for the movie Meet Me in St. Louis, with a bag of Dad’s cookies and a black mug on the coffee en the foreground
December 26, 2024 at 10:33 PM
jamescrossley.bsky.social
“You will be visited by three spirits.”

The three spirits:
A grainy photo of authors William Gaddis, John Hawkes, and Robert Coover
December 24, 2024 at 5:21 PM
jamescrossley.bsky.social
“There go flukes!” was now the cry from Tashtego.
Two white, cast-iron bottle openers shaped like whales rest on a dark wooden desk with indistinct objects in the background. The front whale’s tail, into which a bottle’s top would be inserted to remove its cap, is broken off and lies beside the body of the opener.
November 2, 2024 at 6:22 PM
jamescrossley.bsky.social
Hell yeah
A small, amateurishly assembled wooden bison sculpture rests on a shelf near the base of a lamp
September 30, 2024 at 10:31 PM
jamescrossley.bsky.social
Joan Aiken is good for whatever ails you
A copy of Joan Aiken’s Tales of London Town, with a black-and-white line drawing of a double-decker bus passing a fountain and a painted rainbow behind the title, is held by a male hand
September 17, 2024 at 11:39 PM
jamescrossley.bsky.social
If you see this, post a monster
September 17, 2024 at 8:21 PM
jamescrossley.bsky.social
Bluesky graphic indicating poster was the 657,577th user to join the site, among the first ten percent of all users
September 17, 2024 at 12:42 AM
jamescrossley.bsky.social
September 17, 2024 at 12:39 AM
jamescrossley.bsky.social
Tanner ‘88
February 20, 2024 at 3:46 AM
jamescrossley.bsky.social
One word? How about one letter?
February 13, 2024 at 9:38 PM
jamescrossley.bsky.social
The Paul Griffiths books from Henningham Family Press are printed in different subtly colored inks and I can’t stop looking at them.
January 23, 2024 at 4:21 AM
jamescrossley.bsky.social
Republic of Consciousness Prize longlist assembly continues. Could be a very long longlist if the rules allowed it. #USRoC
January 13, 2024 at 3:19 AM
jamescrossley.bsky.social
Or more simply:
December 19, 2023 at 2:18 PM
jamescrossley.bsky.social
Cursory evidence suggests Agnes was ahead of her time.
December 19, 2023 at 2:17 PM
jamescrossley.bsky.social
Almost forgot to galleybrag about @kellylink.bsky.social’s new novel. Has anyone yet mentioned that the cover of the finished copies looks like a Book Moon T-shirt?
A advanced readers copy of Kelly Link’s novel The Book of Love rests on a brown wooden bookstore counter, with a view of the street outside visible through the panes of a glass door in the background
October 8, 2023 at 5:13 PM
jamescrossley.bsky.social
October 5, 2023 at 4:16 PM
jamescrossley.bsky.social
We call this one Big Red
October 5, 2023 at 2:25 PM
jamescrossley.bsky.social
Gosh this is good
October 4, 2023 at 3:26 AM
jamescrossley.bsky.social
I loved that book! Recommended it in the bookstore newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/d90a9d0049e9/madison-books-newsletter-196
September 24, 2023 at 8:08 PM
jamescrossley.bsky.social
Entrained and en route to Portland for a big bookseller confab
September 19, 2023 at 1:15 AM