Thu, 5 Jan

Ok, it was a lie to say I was reading that book *for* work. I mean, I guess I am, in the sense that it’s good be be aware of what other groups are up to. But it wasn’t my own team’s output. What I read was an early proof of Yellowface by RF Kuang, and it’s absolutely explosive. Or it will be to anyone who is involved in the publishing world. It was seemingly written for the express purpose of making anyone who has ever written or published a book (top to bottom, Big Five to indie) feel like a steaming turd--IN THE BEST POSSIBLE WAY. I can’t tell whether it’s going to affect your average reader the way it’s going to affect publishers and authors, but I can absolutely tell you that the book world is going to be *screaming* when this book hits the fan. I cannot wait to see what the Discourse comes up with about it.

Thanks to my children’s weird school holidays, they are still idling at home, which means that I was able to take them to the stage production of My Neighbor Totoro at the Barbican this afternoon. So gorgeous, so charming. I was a late convert to Studio Ghibli, but Totoro and the soot sprites have my whole heart.

I slowly, slowly am getting some of the STUFF done. But one of the THINGS involved going to a post office today. I used the self service tills, but the combination of the confusing interface, the lack of appropriate labels, and the unwillingness of the person “helping” to communicate through any medium other than dismissive grunt, I’m now deeply concerned by the fact that my relatively important parcel, which included a handwritten letter, is still not showing on the post office tracker thing. I posted it at 1:15. Surely it should be there now? Yipe.