Boze the Library Owl
@sketchesbyboze.bsky.social
books, beauty, history, folklore. Dickens lover. married to @littleseamstress. gets dressed up like a pillow so she's always in bed. patreon.com/sketchesbyboze, https://linktr.ee/sketchesbyboze
Sagan envisioned a future in which the public is uninformed and superstitious. “The dumbing down of America,” he writes, “is most evident in the slow decay of substantive content, the 30-second soundbites … but especially a kind of widespread celebration of ignorance.”
November 8, 2025 at 9:45 PM
Sagan envisioned a future in which the public is uninformed and superstitious. “The dumbing down of America,” he writes, “is most evident in the slow decay of substantive content, the 30-second soundbites … but especially a kind of widespread celebration of ignorance.”
Carl Sagan, writing in 1995, warned that soon America would be ruled by illiterate elites wielding “awesome technological powers,” and that most people, their brains broken by screens, would be unable to resist. We are living in the nightmare that Sagan foresaw.
November 8, 2025 at 9:45 PM
Carl Sagan, writing in 1995, warned that soon America would be ruled by illiterate elites wielding “awesome technological powers,” and that most people, their brains broken by screens, would be unable to resist. We are living in the nightmare that Sagan foresaw.
Spent the day wandering through rain-soaked Seattle, and in a used bookstore found several volumes of medieval art.
October 31, 2025 at 11:05 PM
Spent the day wandering through rain-soaked Seattle, and in a used bookstore found several volumes of medieval art.
It sounds crazy but I promise you: if you just put your phone aside and read for half an hour each night before bed, it will change your life.
![[quoting a tweet from CaffeinatedLiha: “Reading books at night is self-care. The kind that ruins your sleep schedule but heals your soul.”]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:hppum4l25hcczzffastsicpq/bafkreibtjorwchhheseufky2a5m6yixp5t674pxaznsfniu6jhpqmhbepy@jpeg)
October 23, 2025 at 12:59 AM
It sounds crazy but I promise you: if you just put your phone aside and read for half an hour each night before bed, it will change your life.
People love to criticize reading in public as performative but I can't stress enough how much it would improve our collective mental health if we all carried books wherever we went.
![tweet that reads "normalize reading book [sic] in public," with images of a train and a person holding an open book.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:hppum4l25hcczzffastsicpq/bafkreiexyziv7jyeieh53ctykbo2c26e4vw5j7gd7bkngnh33bm6kfegja@jpeg)
October 20, 2025 at 9:29 PM
People love to criticize reading in public as performative but I can't stress enough how much it would improve our collective mental health if we all carried books wherever we went.
Men assume Pride & Prejudice is a Hallmark romance when the plot is driven by the Bennet sisters’ fear of starvation because they will be homeless when their father dies. It’s a book about money, about people, and those who dismiss it as saccharine fluff are cheating themselves.
October 16, 2025 at 10:35 PM
Men assume Pride & Prejudice is a Hallmark romance when the plot is driven by the Bennet sisters’ fear of starvation because they will be homeless when their father dies. It’s a book about money, about people, and those who dismiss it as saccharine fluff are cheating themselves.
In early modern England there was a tradition that witches sailed the sea in eggshells. Children were advised to smash holes in the shells so that they became useless for any witches hoping to cause storms at sea.
October 16, 2025 at 10:20 PM
In early modern England there was a tradition that witches sailed the sea in eggshells. Children were advised to smash holes in the shells so that they became useless for any witches hoping to cause storms at sea.
The part of Orwell's 1984 that everyone forgets is how human music has been replaced by soulless, machine-generated pop songs. The AI attempt to take over the film and music industries is an attack on the human spirit. Boycott AI actors. Boycott AI bands. Support human artists.
October 1, 2025 at 8:39 PM
The part of Orwell's 1984 that everyone forgets is how human music has been replaced by soulless, machine-generated pop songs. The AI attempt to take over the film and music industries is an attack on the human spirit. Boycott AI actors. Boycott AI bands. Support human artists.
Insane haul today at the library book sale - seven books for seven dollars ... the librarian told us they had been donated and the donor worried that the books were too niche to sell ... I've been searching for some of these for AGES 🤓
![[The Anatomy of Melancholy, Briggs' Anatomy of Puck, The Folklore of Shakespeare, two books about strange London, The Mythic Journey, The Complete Essays of Montaigne]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:hppum4l25hcczzffastsicpq/bafkreifcknubd4l6m7mvhhyxwkihx64bhmbnstpmjnzn5wbvc5f6bbyvu4@jpeg)
September 21, 2025 at 6:45 AM
Insane haul today at the library book sale - seven books for seven dollars ... the librarian told us they had been donated and the donor worried that the books were too niche to sell ... I've been searching for some of these for AGES 🤓
If you’ve never read A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, do yourself a favor and read it during the holidays. It’s one of the greatest books ever written, it takes less than two hours to read and once you finish, you can say you’ve read one book by Charles Dickens.
September 16, 2025 at 9:45 PM
If you’ve never read A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, do yourself a favor and read it during the holidays. It’s one of the greatest books ever written, it takes less than two hours to read and once you finish, you can say you’ve read one book by Charles Dickens.
There’s a tradition in some European countries called “telling the bees,” in which bees are informed of notable events in the human world. In Oxford, when a hive’s owner dies, a member of the family will tap on the hive with a housekey and say, “Bees, bees, your master is dead.”
September 10, 2025 at 8:49 PM
There’s a tradition in some European countries called “telling the bees,” in which bees are informed of notable events in the human world. In Oxford, when a hive’s owner dies, a member of the family will tap on the hive with a housekey and say, “Bees, bees, your master is dead.”
This is one of the best single-volume collections of weird folklore ever written, and awakened my love of bogies, feasts, festivals, drowned cities and haunted castles at a young age. An essential book for any lover of legends and old tales.
![[images of Folklore Myths & Legends of Britain by Reader’s Digest]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:hppum4l25hcczzffastsicpq/bafkreihblgtnwcikn7jz35wwwudujx2g67emptbglic5y5fwxvgtw4buyu@jpeg)
September 9, 2025 at 10:00 PM
This is one of the best single-volume collections of weird folklore ever written, and awakened my love of bogies, feasts, festivals, drowned cities and haunted castles at a young age. An essential book for any lover of legends and old tales.
Ray Bradbury; a world where no one reads books is no different from a world without books
August 20, 2025 at 6:39 PM
Ray Bradbury; a world where no one reads books is no different from a world without books
Students don’t need chromebooks and AI tutors, they need Shakespeare and Jane Austen and the Greek myths, they need the Arthurian Legends and the Arabian Nights, they need constant exposure to nature, fairytales, folklore, poetry and beauty.
August 19, 2025 at 10:39 PM
Students don’t need chromebooks and AI tutors, they need Shakespeare and Jane Austen and the Greek myths, they need the Arthurian Legends and the Arabian Nights, they need constant exposure to nature, fairytales, folklore, poetry and beauty.
People are reading AI-generated synopses of books and then claiming they read 100 books in a week. This is how the abolition of books began in Fahrenheit 451: classics were condensed into five-minute summaries for those too busy to do the reading. Later came the burnings.
August 16, 2025 at 8:15 PM
People are reading AI-generated synopses of books and then claiming they read 100 books in a week. This is how the abolition of books began in Fahrenheit 451: classics were condensed into five-minute summaries for those too busy to do the reading. Later came the burnings.
I read 186 books in the first six months of this year. In today's essay (link below) I explain how I did it, and how you can rekindle your love of reading and become a voracious reader in an age of distraction.
August 10, 2025 at 5:35 PM
I read 186 books in the first six months of this year. In today's essay (link below) I explain how I did it, and how you can rekindle your love of reading and become a voracious reader in an age of distraction.
If you're using AI to write essays, eulogies, a text to your wife, I do think less of you as a person. Ceding your mental and creative abilities to a machine is an embarrassing thing and people should be ashamed to admit doing it in public.
![[quoting a tweet by fractalcounty that reads, “today I learned that there are actual people irl who get genuinely upset if they catch you using chatgpt. like they view it as a serious moral failing in certain circles”]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:hppum4l25hcczzffastsicpq/bafkreihjvnz2ttxl7z4a2b3a4kylubobgvqxmjhwz6yuetuztzoc4g2s4y@jpeg)
August 2, 2025 at 6:19 PM
If you're using AI to write essays, eulogies, a text to your wife, I do think less of you as a person. Ceding your mental and creative abilities to a machine is an embarrassing thing and people should be ashamed to admit doing it in public.
A key point in Fahrenheit 451 is that books were banned because they made people depressed and uncomfortable. The novel's protagonist, Montag, is taken into custody after he reads a poem that makes a woman cry because she realizes the emptiness of her life.
![[quoting a tweet from isabelunraveled in which she rails against depressing books that get branded as “great writing”]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:hppum4l25hcczzffastsicpq/bafkreidzblpxefncqr2c73v7myen325wvtk767i7rw4zcc32c3hj4gzv5a@jpeg)
July 29, 2025 at 5:19 PM
A key point in Fahrenheit 451 is that books were banned because they made people depressed and uncomfortable. The novel's protagonist, Montag, is taken into custody after he reads a poem that makes a woman cry because she realizes the emptiness of her life.
I've just spent three days on holiday at the sea-coast and I'm sorry to say I completely get why Victorian doctors prescribed trips to the sea for the nerves.
July 26, 2025 at 8:29 PM
I've just spent three days on holiday at the sea-coast and I'm sorry to say I completely get why Victorian doctors prescribed trips to the sea for the nerves.
No. Ignore this. You are capable of reading books again. The brain is highly malleable and you only need a few screen-free weeks to recover your focus. You will be amazed how quickly the hunger for reading returns. You will be inhaling words
July 18, 2025 at 7:34 PM
No. Ignore this. You are capable of reading books again. The brain is highly malleable and you only need a few screen-free weeks to recover your focus. You will be amazed how quickly the hunger for reading returns. You will be inhaling words
I'm begging everyone who hasn't yet to read this book. The premise, about a man living in an infinite house, is terrifically inventive, and it goes in a direction you don't expect. No other living author writes with such a keen sense of horror & beauty. The book of the decade.
July 15, 2025 at 10:10 PM
I'm begging everyone who hasn't yet to read this book. The premise, about a man living in an infinite house, is terrifically inventive, and it goes in a direction you don't expect. No other living author writes with such a keen sense of horror & beauty. The book of the decade.
Just a reminder that I don't endorse the personal opinions or private behavior of every author on this list. Happy reading!
bibliollcollege.substack.com/p/bozes-eigh...
bibliollcollege.substack.com/p/bozes-eigh...
July 9, 2025 at 8:41 PM
Just a reminder that I don't endorse the personal opinions or private behavior of every author on this list. Happy reading!
bibliollcollege.substack.com/p/bozes-eigh...
bibliollcollege.substack.com/p/bozes-eigh...
I wrote an essay reviewing and ranking my eighty-five FAVORITE books from thirty years of reading - the plays, poems, mysteries, fantasies, diaries that have shaped me. Please tell me in the comments which books I missed. (link below)
July 9, 2025 at 8:41 PM
I wrote an essay reviewing and ranking my eighty-five FAVORITE books from thirty years of reading - the plays, poems, mysteries, fantasies, diaries that have shaped me. Please tell me in the comments which books I missed. (link below)
![[my tweet from 2019 in which Conan Doyle says, "I have invented the greatest detective of all time" and Agatha Christie says, "Hold my tea," to which Doyle replies, "... why does this tea taste funny." Ladyvyola on tumblr has added, "This is even funnier if you know that Christie did not learn about poisons because she became a mystery writer, rather that she specifically became a writer of mysteries because she already had extensive knowledge of poisons due to her World War I training as a nurse and dispenser."]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:hppum4l25hcczzffastsicpq/bafkreigtcww7wgksmxwyy6f4jqolxlr5vvmliw6p6rbeicdensancbsdxu@jpeg)
these vintage library promotional posters go so hard
![[vintage book posters, from the 1910s to the 1960s, with slogans like "develop the power that is within you" and "for greater knowledge, use your library often"]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:hppum4l25hcczzffastsicpq/bafkreiavh5kz4naixgys6ia6z4pa3bq5clmccducidoiwda5prwosysqgi@jpeg)
June 29, 2025 at 8:05 PM
these vintage library promotional posters go so hard