🔖💬 “Your death matters. You can choose something that will reflect the values and beliefs that you held in your life, and translate them into your death. What you choose to do, is your final act, your final gesture on this earth.” Sarah Chavez, The Order of the Good Death

Want to read: Wish You Were Here: Adventures in Cemetery Travel by Loren Rhoads 📚

Want to read: Dark Archives: A Librarian’s Investigation into the Science and History of Books Bound in Human Skin by Megan Rosenbloom 📚

Want to read: The Victorian Book of the Dead by Chris Woodyard 📚

Want to read: A is for Arsenic: An ABC of Victorian Death by Chris Woodyard 📚

Want to read: Good Grief: Loving Pets, Here and Hereafter by E.B. Bartels 📚

Want to read: The Anatomical Venus by Joanna Ebenstein 📚

Want to read: The Morbid Anatomy Anthology by Joanna Ebenstein 📚

Want to read: Cabarets of Death: Death, Dance and Dining in Early Twentieth-Century Paris by Mel Gordon 📚

🔖📚🎭 Read Why We Should Celebrate the 400th Anniversary of Shakespeare’s First Folio (Literary Hub).

Finished reading: Future Tense: Why Anxiety Is Good for You (Even Though It Feels Bad) by Tracy Dennis-Tiwary 📚

A helpful framing of normal, baseline anxiety as a source of information that can spur us to creativity and action.

November is not my favorite month.

🔖 Read The enshittification of academic social media (The Thesis Whisperer).

Set up the Vapor1994 theme with custom colors on my website until I create a custom theme. A few font-size and color tweaks to make still but mostly I’m very happy with it.

🔖 Read Intro to the Web Revival #1: What is the Web Revival?.

Fun to read about all the IndieWeb’s neighbors!

Finished reading: The Blazing World by Margaret Cavendish 📚

A 17th Century bit of philosophical fantastical adventure.

📚💬 “I endeavour to be as singular as I can.” Margaret Cavendish, The Description of a New World, Called The Blazing-World

Hey Micro.bloggers and other interested parties, do you have favorite resources that helped you learn how to create a Hugo theme?

🔖 Read Two Wins for Public Libraries This Week at the Polls by Kelly Jensen (Literary Activism).

Good things are happening but we need to remain vigilant. The people trying to take books out of libraries and take control away from library professionals are immensely well-funded.

🔖 Read:

Thanks @gr36 for directing my attention to Whiona!

🔖💻 Read Why the Internet Isn’t Fun Anymore by Kyle Chayka (The New Yorker).

Voting selfie!

A white woman with dark hair, glasses, and blue eyes smiles. On her sweatshirt is a sticker that reads, "No Bull I Voted."

🔖📚 Read A Pennsylvania Public Library Had Funding Cut Because of LGBTQ+ Books. Then, An Olympian Stepped In..

An important reminder from Kelly Jensen about how libraries are on the ballot today in many places.

🔖 Read The US library system, once the best in the world, faces death by a thousand cuts by Brewster Kale (The Guardian).

A useful reminder that even publishers come for libraries now, with restrictions on digital lending.

If, like me, you grieve Halloween’s passing, I’m delighted to inform you that I have officially extended Halloween season. The last day of the season is now November 22.