#sotherans

[flameraven]

[hedonistbyheart]

Oliver is at it again!

[hodgebros-blog]

REVIEW: Once Upon a Tome: The Misadventures of a Rare Bookseller

Unrelated note, but I wish that the mobile app didn’t make my portrait so enormous. Or maybe I wish that my portrait looked nicer.

[student-by-day]

it's the end of the second wk of uni, and i'm alr thinking abt next summer's travel plans... :'] i miss magical places like this that look as if they're straight out of a beauty and the beast scene.

[eli-zab3th]

"Being open about who you are can be a little scary, but I think that after you’ve explored your first dungeon, or been hounded through a forest by an unknown threat, you begin to worry less about the approval of others and more about whether you remembered to bring a torch."

- Once Upon a Tome, Oliver Darkshire

[unrighteousbooks]

Be Warned: An Impostor is Among Us

I recently finished reading Oliver Darkshire's book Once Upon a Tome. Mr. Darkshire is an antiquarian bookseller at Sotheran's Rare Books in London. While I greatly enjoyed the book, I was deeply disturbed to read this passage:

"Of all the nice letters I've ever received, the ones I hold particularly close to my heart were sent from a mysterious stranger masquerading as the bookshop-owning angel Aziraphale from the novel Good Omens."

I do not understand why Mr. Darkshire describes me as being "from the novel Good Omens," as though I were some sort of fictional character. Setting that aside, however, it is unnerving to realize that a complete stranger is wandering the streets of London, writing letters and pretending to be me.

I can offer no proof, but I believe that the likely suspects can be narrowed down to a very short list.

A few years ago -- well, I suppose it was actually many years ago -- there was a book called History of New York. It was subsequently revealed that the author of this book, one Diedrich Knickerbocker, did not in fact exist. Perhaps "Mr. Knickerbocker" has moved on from creating fictional personas, and is now hijacking the identity of legitimate booksellers such as myself. (Regular readers will recall that I have previously commented on Mr. Knickerbocker: https://www.aziraphale.com/post/143753123162/a-curious-bit-of-satire-in-an-unvisited-corner-of)

Meanwhile, I have also been informed that there is a man named Buster Poindexter who is notorious for falsifying his identity. I have it on good authority that Mr. Poindexter has openly confessed that he is suffering from a personality crisis. It should also be noted that the name "poindexter" is often used to refer to someone who is enamored of books. Coincidence? I think not.

Another likely suspect -- or possibly "suspects," plural -- is a person or persons going by the name Pratchett Gaiman, or possibly Gaiman Pratchett. Again, I have no proof, but I have lost count of the times someone in the shop has asked me about so-and-so Gaiman or such-and-such Pratchett.

Finally, I cannot completely discount the possibility that my friend Crowley might be playing some sort of elaborate prank. He insists that this is not his doing, but it is just the sort of device that he would employ to rile me. He knows that pranks are anathema to me.

[mister-a-z-fell]

It seems apposite to mention — in case I haven’t already done so — that I am not in any way employed by the makers of the documentary. I am not ‘promoting’ anything (although I’d be very pleased if you were kind to each other). I’m just a perfectly ordinary retired entity who very occasionally — if I have no other option — sells a book.

I hope that clears up any misunderstandings.

[antrea]

[24.09.19] training camp day 1

[larsnicklas]

[240210 pdx vs. sea] the portland winterhawks congratulate goaltender jan špunar after a win. špunar recently returned to the ice after an injury that took him out of commission for over two months; in the three games since his return, he has gone 3-0-0 while allowing just a single goal in each outing. špunar leads all whl goaltenders in gaa (1.70) and sv% (.934).

[onmytape]

fun fact: only 3 players from manitoba were selected in the draft this year and 2 of them were drafted by the flyers

[hedonistbyheart]

Listening to Oliver Darkshire - the Sotherans guy's - book and the further in I get, the more I'm fully convinced he'd have a statement in the magnus archives.

[puckpocketed]

MR CRITZER I OWE YOU MY LIFE

[tweetsunderglass]

@Sotherans

ME: yes doctor I think I have the book scramblies

DOCTOR: well thats not a disease

ME: I think you'll find it is or why did I buy all these books I can neither afford nor have time to read

DOCTOR: im not sure thats a medical issue

ME: book scramblies

6:41 AM · Jun 15, 2023

[anastasiaoftheironwood]

When I was married to my first husband, we would go to his parents' house regularly for dinner, because, you know, family, and I wanted to be on good terms with them.

One visit, I noticed some boxes at the top of the cupboard. I asked my mother-in-law what they held.

The boxes contained their wedding china, which they had received as gifts.

That they had never opened, much less used.

She wasn't sure what she was waiting for, but the right occasion hadn't come up yet.

Twenty-eight years later, the boxes remain unopened.

A brief moment of rationality from the bird place.

[claar-bookdragonwitch]

[mister-a-z-fell]

My first videographic endeavour! Now I don’t even need to be there in person to tell customers to go away. Isn’t technology wonderful?