Steffen Rayburn-Maarup
@rayburnmaarup.bsky.social
Books. Translation. Publishing. Films. Music. 🇩🇰🇬🇧🇪🇺
My cd player in the living room 2025 Wrapped.
December 5, 2025 at 2:10 PM
My cd player in the living room 2025 Wrapped.
Read: Jane Austen: Emma (1815).
This month is 250 years since Austen's birth and 210 years since the publication of Emma.
It's a whodunnit with love replacing murder, but the clues are fairly obvious, and anyway of course you're here for the characters, the language, the delicious humour.
This month is 250 years since Austen's birth and 210 years since the publication of Emma.
It's a whodunnit with love replacing murder, but the clues are fairly obvious, and anyway of course you're here for the characters, the language, the delicious humour.
December 5, 2025 at 1:51 PM
Read: Jane Austen: Emma (1815).
This month is 250 years since Austen's birth and 210 years since the publication of Emma.
It's a whodunnit with love replacing murder, but the clues are fairly obvious, and anyway of course you're here for the characters, the language, the delicious humour.
This month is 250 years since Austen's birth and 210 years since the publication of Emma.
It's a whodunnit with love replacing murder, but the clues are fairly obvious, and anyway of course you're here for the characters, the language, the delicious humour.
Listening to my man JSB like a 22-year-old.
December 3, 2025 at 3:55 PM
Listening to my man JSB like a 22-year-old.
Don't think of it as dismal, as death and decay. Think of it as a step in the cyclical process, advancing towards spring.
I tell myself as I post a dismal photo.
I tell myself as I post a dismal photo.
December 2, 2025 at 8:19 AM
Don't think of it as dismal, as death and decay. Think of it as a step in the cyclical process, advancing towards spring.
I tell myself as I post a dismal photo.
I tell myself as I post a dismal photo.
Never mind Die Hard.
THE GODFATHER is a Christmas movie.
THE GODFATHER is a Christmas movie.
December 2, 2025 at 8:05 AM
Never mind Die Hard.
THE GODFATHER is a Christmas movie.
THE GODFATHER is a Christmas movie.
November reading [✓]
Favourite: oh, apples and oranges. Evans might be the one I'll reread first, but I can imagine dipping into the Oulipo many, many times. All three books were a joy to read.
Favourite: oh, apples and oranges. Evans might be the one I'll reread first, but I can imagine dipping into the Oulipo many, many times. All three books were a joy to read.
November 30, 2025 at 11:56 AM
November reading [✓]
Favourite: oh, apples and oranges. Evans might be the one I'll reread first, but I can imagine dipping into the Oulipo many, many times. All three books were a joy to read.
Favourite: oh, apples and oranges. Evans might be the one I'll reread first, but I can imagine dipping into the Oulipo many, many times. All three books were a joy to read.
Read: Philip Terry (ed.): The Penguin Book of Oulipo (2019).
A selection of one hundred playful, experimental texts, prose and poetry. Very inspiring.
A selection of one hundred playful, experimental texts, prose and poetry. Very inspiring.
November 28, 2025 at 8:32 AM
Read: Philip Terry (ed.): The Penguin Book of Oulipo (2019).
A selection of one hundred playful, experimental texts, prose and poetry. Very inspiring.
A selection of one hundred playful, experimental texts, prose and poetry. Very inspiring.
[Obvious joke about the turkeys storming the Capitol on 6 Jan.]
November 26, 2025 at 7:03 AM
[Obvious joke about the turkeys storming the Capitol on 6 Jan.]
Today: two male bullfinches, some coots and ducks, and a heron squawking above me.
November 25, 2025 at 11:51 AM
Today: two male bullfinches, some coots and ducks, and a heron squawking above me.
And not a T in sight.
November 24, 2025 at 8:40 PM
And not a T in sight.
How should one go about translating Inger Christensen's Alfabet? Seeing as it is an alphabetically ordered list of things which "exist", shouldn't one replace words with ones that have the right initials? (Hydrogen is brint in Danish.)
This is like ignoring rhyme in a translation.
This is like ignoring rhyme in a translation.
November 21, 2025 at 3:10 PM
How should one go about translating Inger Christensen's Alfabet? Seeing as it is an alphabetically ordered list of things which "exist", shouldn't one replace words with ones that have the right initials? (Hydrogen is brint in Danish.)
This is like ignoring rhyme in a translation.
This is like ignoring rhyme in a translation.
Læst, med JuniorJunior: Bjarne Reuter: Busters verden (1979), Kys stjernerne (1980) og Hvor regnbuen endet (1982).
Det er farligt at genlæse barndommens bøger, for hvad nu hvis de ikke holder? ...
Det er farligt at genlæse barndommens bøger, for hvad nu hvis de ikke holder? ...
November 21, 2025 at 8:11 AM
Læst, med JuniorJunior: Bjarne Reuter: Busters verden (1979), Kys stjernerne (1980) og Hvor regnbuen endet (1982).
Det er farligt at genlæse barndommens bøger, for hvad nu hvis de ikke holder? ...
Det er farligt at genlæse barndommens bøger, for hvad nu hvis de ikke holder? ...
She's coming …
November 20, 2025 at 12:47 PM
She's coming …
From another angle:
November 19, 2025 at 8:17 PM
From another angle:
A kestrel and a buzzard taking it in turns to dominate the sky above me.
November 18, 2025 at 1:18 PM
A kestrel and a buzzard taking it in turns to dominate the sky above me.
Another gorgeous portrait by our old friend, Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres.
November 17, 2025 at 7:12 AM
Another gorgeous portrait by our old friend, Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres.
Wow. Come and See (Elem Klimov, 1985) is a cinematic masterpiece. At turns surreal and realistic, beautifully staged and shot throughout, and oh, harrowing. *Not* a pleasant film.
November 16, 2025 at 8:17 PM
Wow. Come and See (Elem Klimov, 1985) is a cinematic masterpiece. At turns surreal and realistic, beautifully staged and shot throughout, and oh, harrowing. *Not* a pleasant film.
Read: Lissa Evans's Small Bomb at Dimperley (2024).
Colossally charming, funny, moving book set in post-war England. A feel-good book for readers who don't go for feel-good books.
Colossally charming, funny, moving book set in post-war England. A feel-good book for readers who don't go for feel-good books.
November 14, 2025 at 8:15 AM
Read: Lissa Evans's Small Bomb at Dimperley (2024).
Colossally charming, funny, moving book set in post-war England. A feel-good book for readers who don't go for feel-good books.
Colossally charming, funny, moving book set in post-war England. A feel-good book for readers who don't go for feel-good books.
Your weekly slowly hibernating bit of outside.
November 11, 2025 at 10:00 AM
Your weekly slowly hibernating bit of outside.
But I will never understand how little British publishing values illustrators. Every chapter of this book has a lovely b/w vignette. Hidden in the colophon is the only mention of the artist's name: Rohan Daniel Eason.
November 7, 2025 at 9:59 PM
But I will never understand how little British publishing values illustrators. Every chapter of this book has a lovely b/w vignette. Hidden in the colophon is the only mention of the artist's name: Rohan Daniel Eason.
Read: Sam Leith: The Haunted Wood: A History of Childhood Reading (2024).
Wonderfully alive history of children's (and adjacent) books. A big fat brick I could almost have read in one sitting.
Wonderfully alive history of children's (and adjacent) books. A big fat brick I could almost have read in one sitting.
November 7, 2025 at 7:53 AM
Read: Sam Leith: The Haunted Wood: A History of Childhood Reading (2024).
Wonderfully alive history of children's (and adjacent) books. A big fat brick I could almost have read in one sitting.
Wonderfully alive history of children's (and adjacent) books. A big fat brick I could almost have read in one sitting.
Rooks and crows overhead, tits in the trees. A light rain.
November 4, 2025 at 12:14 PM
Rooks and crows overhead, tits in the trees. A light rain.
October reading [✓]
Favourite: all good, but McKee a bit longwinded, Smith a mixed bag, Morrison great (but not as great as in other books), so I guess new-to-me James whose classic ghost stories were pretty much perfect.
Favourite: all good, but McKee a bit longwinded, Smith a mixed bag, Morrison great (but not as great as in other books), so I guess new-to-me James whose classic ghost stories were pretty much perfect.
October 31, 2025 at 9:03 AM
October reading [✓]
Favourite: all good, but McKee a bit longwinded, Smith a mixed bag, Morrison great (but not as great as in other books), so I guess new-to-me James whose classic ghost stories were pretty much perfect.
Favourite: all good, but McKee a bit longwinded, Smith a mixed bag, Morrison great (but not as great as in other books), so I guess new-to-me James whose classic ghost stories were pretty much perfect.
Ingres: Another self-portrait, now aged 84–85 (though reportedly based on a photo taken ten years earlier).
October 31, 2025 at 7:50 AM
Ingres: Another self-portrait, now aged 84–85 (though reportedly based on a photo taken ten years earlier).