At the end of each week, I usually collate a lightly edited collection of recent comments I’ve made on social media, which I think of as my public scratch pad. I tag on what books I may have finished reading. Knowing I’ll revisit my social media posts, I’ve found, serves as a positive and mellowing influence on my online activity. I mostly hang out on Mastodon (at post.lurk.org/@disquiet), and I’m also trying out a few others. And I generally take weekends off social media.
▰ Young child, perhaps in a bookstore for the first time, to parent: “It’s, like, soundproof in here.”
▰ Making abstract, rhythmic electronic music intended to sound like something falling apart in reverse? You could do worse than to study the first 42 seconds of Diana Ross’s (and Bernard Edwards’s and Nile Rodgers’s) “I’m Coming Out.”
▰ Well, it wouldn’t be Jamuary without an unwarranted takedown notice from SoundCloud
▰ Membership in the DisquietJunto is open: just join and participate. There’s no pressure to do every project. The Junto is weekly so that you know it’s there, every Thursday through Monday, when your time and interest align.
▰ The music in the waiting room at the car dealership is “Hotel California.” I’ve been waiting an exceedingly long time. A service technician hums along as the song arrives at the line “You can check out any time you like but you can never leave.” I’m trying to discern if the individual is aware of the irony.
▰ Few situations make me feel like I’m in a Kobo Abe novel quite like sitting for a long time in a waiting room
▰ If I’ve done my math correctly, the 750th consecutive weekly Disquiet Junto project will begin on May 14, 2026
▰ Two books this week: I finished reading my second novel of 2026, Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch (following quickly after Flesh by David Szalay). I’ve been to London (and more broadly various parts of the United Kingdom) several times, but clearly not often enough to get the nuances of the rivers and monuments that are anthropomorphized here. The story, an urban fantasy reworking of Punch and Judy, made me want to re-read China Miéville’s King Rat, an urban fantasy reworking of the Pied Piper of Hamelin. … I also finished the first graphic novel I’ve read this year, the just-published collection in the often excellent Lazarus series, written by Greg Rucka and illustrated by Michael Lark. I really dig this long-running series, a plot-heavy not-too-near-ish-future sci-fi thriller, more timely than ever due to its emphasis on post-capitalist feudalism and the wages of longevity. After I read the first issue of this latest arc, I waited until the sequence of six issues, collectively titled Lazarus: Fallen, was complete before taking it all in in one sitting. (Note: Don’t start reading the Lazarus books with this one. Start at the beginning.) Lark is reported to be have suffered a stroke at the end of 2025. Here’s wishing him a smooth recovery.