iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Brian C. Veteran Bookseller @chainborne.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Your efforts are appreciated! bsky.app/profile/chai...

Brian C. Veteran Bookseller @chainborne.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

"There were only three times in your life when it was proper to come through the front door, and you were carried every time." - Wyrd Sisters, by Terry Pratchett

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Brian C. Veteran Bookseller @chainborne.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

God I remember one of the Dolebusters had to break in a pair of winklepickers for a client. I'd forgotten all about that. What a bizarre strip!

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Brian C. Veteran Bookseller @chainborne.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

One advantage to audiobooks is that you learn the pronunciation of words you've only ever seen written down. Today, thanks to @travisbaldree.bsky.social and @silverliningsrr.bsky.social I learned how to pronounce "geis", which is *not* what I thought - I'm quite proud to have even recognised it!

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Brian C. Veteran Bookseller @chainborne.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Beer: The cause of, and solution to, Human Civilization.

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Brian C. Veteran Bookseller @chainborne.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

But how else will Cape Suzette receive cargo deliveries?

An image of Baloo, a grey-furred bear looking very dashing in in a red pilot hat, scarf, yellow shirt and leather flight jacket with a fur collar, from the Disney animated series "Talespin".

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Brian C. Veteran Bookseller @chainborne.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

I couldn't rest until I googled it and reassured myself that it's ok not to know the answer because I haven't actually seen that movie. Not saying the answer though because I had to cheat. 😏

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Brian C. Veteran Bookseller @chainborne.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Kudos to whoever translated this line of dialogue...

A screenshot from the anime series "My Gift Lvl 9999 Unlimited Gacha: Backstabbed in a Backwater Dungeon, I'm Out for Revenge" Season One, Episode Nine: "Kick Off".

A tight shot of three characters conversing against a backdrop of trees and blue sky; a young human woman with tan skin and white hair dressed in fantasy rogue's gear, a very tall warrior in gleaming golden full-plate armour and helmet, and a young dark-haired boy in mage robes with his back to us.

In subtitles, the giant warrior in gold is saying "Blimey, what an absolute insufferable bellend."

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Brian C. Veteran Bookseller @chainborne.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

I've had the week off work and spent it mostly bingeing audiobooks, which has gone from "format I can't really get on with" to "minor obsession" (Dungeon Crawler Carl being the gateway). I'll burn out and move on to some new craze at some point, but I'm having fun in the meantime! 😊

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Brian C. Veteran Bookseller @chainborne.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Oh I'm getting definite Murderbot vibes! 😃

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Brian C. Veteran Bookseller @chainborne.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Oh, the first one is free, excellent! And from what little I've listened to the humour hits the right tone. I'll definitely give this one a listen. Thanks again!

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Brian C. Veteran Bookseller @chainborne.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Thanks, I'll check it out! I'm really enjoying Mark of The Fool by J. M. Clarke (just finished book 2), which is Progression Fantasy I guess more than LitRPG. I'm beginning to wonder if my taste is actually "anything read by Travis Baldree". 😄

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Brian C. Veteran Bookseller @chainborne.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

I don't discount the fact that the series is clearly popular (it's made the leap to trad publication after all) but I don't think it's going to be for me, or is just taking to long to get there. Happy there's no shortage of other series to try! 😁

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Brian C. Veteran Bookseller @chainborne.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Thanks for the response. :) I gave it till the end of chapter 7 when Erin meets the two guardsmen, and instead of accompanying them back to the safety of the city, just waves them off to stay by herself in an abandoned plague den in the middle of a dangerous wilderness with a limited food supply. 🤷‍♂️

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Brian C. Veteran Bookseller @chainborne.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

There's an old Terry Pratchett sci-fi book (Strata) that makes passing reference to the idea that if Venus had a visible moon, detectable by ancient astronomy, we might have side-stepped belief in an Earth-centered Universe because that would have been evidence not everything revolved around us.

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Brian C. Veteran Bookseller @chainborne.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

I'll give it a bit longer since it's apparently a classic of the genre, but it's not given me any other reason to continue so far. /rant over.

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Brian C. Veteran Bookseller @chainborne.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

I guess it's refreshing not to have an OP main character who instantly adapts to isekai life, but I find her incompetence baffling and irritating. Plus she's walking around just fine with a dragon-burned arm and legs sliced up by goblins, but a slice to her palm causes incapacitating agony.

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Brian C. Veteran Bookseller @chainborne.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

She collected rainwater to clean the tables(?) after spending an eternity of book time looking for a dust-rag, but forgot to drink anything for over 2 days and ignored a kitchen full of knives and ironware despite being chased by goblins on day one and then setting out to gather food.

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Brian C. Veteran Bookseller @chainborne.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

So I've been dipping my toe into various LitRPG audiobook series recently, and I've just devoted two whole hours to The Wandering Inn, aaaand ...does it get better at any point? Somehow the MC has spent 3 nights in an abandoned inn without actually managing to sleep in one of the beds.

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Brian C. Veteran Bookseller @chainborne.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Just read the rest of the comments, and if you like morally grey MCs, Primal Hunter is a solid rec. 😊

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Brian C. Veteran Bookseller @chainborne.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

I'm somewhat new to both audiobooks and LitRPG/Progression Fantasy (blame DCC!) and have tried out a few book 1s. Mark of the Fool is my favourite so far. • HWFWM suffers from having a smug preachy know-it-all MC. • Primal Hunter is good, but lacks a moral centre - seems very "might-makes-right".

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Brian C. Veteran Bookseller @chainborne.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

I literally just searched "Mark of the Fool" to see if anyone was talking about it. I'm only on book 2 on audible, but really enjoying it. 👍👍 • A likeable MC with a unique handicap • Colourful prose without being overwrought • Actual plot! • Magic School goodness • Travis Baldree narrates

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Brian C. Veteran Bookseller @chainborne.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Oh that's interesting! I stand corrected. The Shorter is in regular type, so probably much abridged. Confusingly there's an everyday "Compact" OED that is just a normal home dictionary. It looks like your Compact is now available as a single edition though! www.waterstones.com/book/9780198...

waterstones.com

The Compact Oxford English Dictionary by J. A. Simpson, E. S. C. Weiner | Waterstones

Buy The Compact Oxford English Dictionary by J. A. Simpson, E. S. C. Weiner from Waterstones today! Click and Collect from your local Waterstones or get FREE UK delivery on orders over £25.

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Brian C. Veteran Bookseller @chainborne.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

I collect physical media and this is one of my holy grails. Waiting patiently for a 4K special edition.

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Brian C. Veteran Bookseller @chainborne.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

This is part of the "canary in the coalmine" metaphor that I didn't know - when the canary collapses you don't just go "Oop! Better save ourselves!", you also *bring out the canary*. This feels like something Terry Pratchett could've made a great point out of.

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Brian C. Veteran Bookseller @chainborne.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

When writing his "Shakespeare's Star Wars" adaptations, Ian Doescher faced the problem of how to represent Yoda's unusual grammar, with all the other characters speaking in iambic pentameter, so he had Yoda speak in Haiku. 🙂

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Brian C. Veteran Bookseller @chainborne.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Is this about washing up, or what young Mormons do in the bedroom?

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Brian C. Veteran Bookseller @chainborne.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

In this field S.I. already stands for Synthetic Intelligence, an alternative term intended to emphasise that although constructed rather than natural, it is still actual "intelligence" and not a simulation of it. (I'm not saying we're there yet) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synthet...

en.wikipedia.org

Synthetic intelligence - Wikipedia

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Brian C. Veteran Bookseller @chainborne.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

I see the new "Meta Luna" smart-glasses don't have a camera, but do they include an Interocitor? Or do you have to build it yourself? (This is an extremely niche tweet)

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Brian C. Veteran Bookseller @chainborne.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

You're lucky, when the reverse happens it's impossible to rectify, according to all the stories on the topic...

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Brian C. Veteran Bookseller @chainborne.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Explicit labels and heavy-handed visual metaphor are an established hallmark of political cartoons going back a couple of hundred years. This one is so of-its-type that it's hardly recognisable as satire, as seen from the comments.

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Brian C. Veteran Bookseller @chainborne.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Mariana Enriquez and Agustina Bazterrica are the usual suspects for that. 😊 Oh, and Andrew Michael Hurley.

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Brian C. Veteran Bookseller @chainborne.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Did it have a separate section for horror? Many small branches don't. A range like that in a small branch is usually a sign that one of the booksellers is a fan of the genre.

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Brian C. Veteran Bookseller @chainborne.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

..."Isn't it time that you woke up, to a richer, smoother-tasting cup? Start you day with Nescafé, coffee at its best!" youtu.be/1oiZD94do6E

youtu.be

Nescafe the better way to start your day . Gareth hunt advert 1987

YouTube video by Throwbacktvads

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Brian C. Veteran Bookseller @chainborne.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

If kids today aren't seeing broadcast advertising jingles, and are skipping the opening title songs of their shows, where are their lifelong earworms going to come from? (Thought comes after singing "Nescafé, Nescafé, a better way to start the day!" to myself while making a cup of coffee)

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Brian C. Veteran Bookseller @chainborne.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Oh 100%. I feel like lot of people who have kids try to give them the upbringing they wish *they* had, as if to prove how well they would have turned out if their own parents hadn't agreed them up, and this would absolutely play into that

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Brian C. Veteran Bookseller @chainborne.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Also a great novel with beautiful prose might not necessarily mean a great audiobook. I think there's a kind of rambling, informal, unadorned style that lend itself to oral storytelling, like a real person is talking to you, but that might just be my preference.

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Brian C. Veteran Bookseller @chainborne.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

I don't have a great deal of experience with the format, but I'm beginning to think that the difference between a bad audiobook and a good audiobook has less to do with the quality of the writing and more to do with the talent of the narrator.

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Brian C. Veteran Bookseller @chainborne.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

I've been making this comparison (mostly to myself) The notion of a capricious and hugely unfair universe in which individual lives are crushingly insignificant feels very Adamsian. The difference being that in DCC its a socio-economic construct rather than natural law and Carl is very mad about it.

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Brian C. Veteran Bookseller @chainborne.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Trying to explain the terms Hotsy-Totsy, 23 Skidoo, Red Hot Mama and Boo-boop-i-doo to a younger generation...

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Brian C. Veteran Bookseller @chainborne.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Great film! Fantastic score by Mario Nascimbene, and Kirk Douglas assaulting a castle by axe-climbing a closed drawbridge! "He scrapes his face like an Englishman!" 😁

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Brian C. Veteran Bookseller @chainborne.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

I'm not qualified to judge how well it's handled, but one of the central, world-saving characters of Jacqueline Carey's "Starless" has paralysis of the legs after a childhood poisoning.

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