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Made of words and movies

@hfnuala.bsky.social
317 followers 587 following 1.5K posts

Irishwoman (she/her) washed up in Edinburgh. Responsible for 1 kid (the other is now an adult!) and an ever growing tbr. Books, cooking, sometimes knitting & crochet. I may be a flaneuse or I might just be idle. People talk to me.

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Made of words and movies @hfnuala.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
The greatest trick the devil ever played was convincing teenagers that Lolita (a well written book about a creepy man) has anything interesting to tell them about their sexuality. It doesn't. I don't believe in telling people not to read things but I wish other books had that cultural niche.
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Made of words and movies @hfnuala.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Everything I read in September. 16 books, 6 of them from the Dungeon Crawler Carl series that I'm not even sure I like. I was trying to read Booker long list books but got derailed from that. I will probably do a capsule summary of my thoughts later, but ask me if some feel urgent. #booksky
Graphic from storygraph of the covers of all the books I finished this month.

Hons and Rebels by Jessica Mitford
Shroud by Adrian Tchaikovsky 
John of John Douglas Stuart
Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman
Carl's Doomsday Scenario
Exit Party by Emily St John Mantell
Room by Emma Donohue
The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook
The Palm House by Gwendolyn Riley
London Falling by Patrick Radden Keeffe
The Gate of the Feral Gods
The Butcher's Masquerade 
The Quiet Damage by Jesselyn Cook
The Director by Daniel Kehlmann, translated by Ross Benjamin
The Eye of the Bedlam Bride
Rapture by Emily Maguire
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Made of words and movies @hfnuala.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Headlines that sound like a future history class topic.
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Made of words and movies @hfnuala.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
A few times recently a child or young person has been in our house and commented on how small our telly is. Which I guess is true, but you know what it isn't doing? Listening to us. #neoludite
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Emma Yeomans @yeomans.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Worrying scenes in the Channel today, for all interested in asylum policy and maritime tactics. A small boat from Normandy spent more than 30 hours at sea. Those on board now on their 2nd rescue vessel as Border Force forced to play cat and mouse with far-right activists who have their own boat.
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TW @twesq.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
this is fantastic and I learned something new
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Made of words and movies @hfnuala.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Half way through this. The German border has just closed. Imagine trying to just live your life with health problems and work stress, and all around fascism is well and truly here. #booksky
The cover of The Director by Daniel Kehlmann
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Made of words and movies @hfnuala.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
I am listening to an audio book about QAnon. It's called The Quiet Damage and is very good. Talks about a range of people with different backgrounds getting sucked in. The only problem is it refers to Anons and I am old enough that this invokes fandom wank rather than cult members.
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Be Gay Solve Crimes @begaysolvecrimes.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
hard boiled egg (sam spade), softboy egg (philip marlowe), pickled egg (hank quinlan), century egg (Zhang), scrambled egg (Harry du Bois), tea stained egg (patrick jane), eggs benedict (guess), poached egg (Vidocq), scotch egg (rebus), omelette (maigret)
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Made of words and movies @hfnuala.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Just started Dungeon Crawler Carl. I didn't realise it literally lists off stats. I will probably finish this book, unlikely to go back for more. Feel free to tell me if there's a huge change in book two.
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Made of words and movies @hfnuala.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
I am not opining on parents location tracking kids (any age) but my now 20 year old likes to look at her friends' locations after a night out for gossip purposes. Undoing all the good of living in a city in my opinion.
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Made of words and movies @hfnuala.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
I finished 19 books in August. Even for me, this is a lot. 8 library books, 7 ebooks, 2 physical books bought last year and 2 physical books borrowed from my family. 2 nonfiction, rest fiction. A mix of SFF prize reading, booker longlist reading and a fair amount of whim. #booksky
A cover collage of all the books read by hfnuala this August.

Spoiled Milk
May We Feed the King
The Names
Land
The Tainted Cup
When There Are Wolves Again
Yesteryear 
A Drop of Corruption
The Everlasting
Some Prefer Nettles
Black Bag
Ghost Wall
To Exist As I Am
Swordheart
When the Naughty Step Doesn't Work
Daggerbound
The Witch
Perfection 
Famesick
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Made of words and movies @hfnuala.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
Represent
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Made of words and movies @hfnuala.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Is it rude to read my kindle in an indie bookshop cafe? I have bought a book (r.i.p. my no book buying year,) but kinda want to finish the kindle book first? #booksky
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Made of words and movies @hfnuala.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
An election in India, which given when we lived there, was the one that ended the emergency in 1977.
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eerie dickgirl @eigenvectrix.northsky.social · 15/08/2026
Imagine an environment where Simon Baron-Cohen has the moral high ground
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Made of words and movies @hfnuala.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
I am about 50 pages from the end. Should keep reading before sleep.
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Made of words and movies @hfnuala.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
August in Edinburgh is so annoying. I am considering going upstairs to put on a jumper.
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Stephen King’s KAYLEIGH @ronchronchronch.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
happy Armand Didn’t Plan to Say “Love” Day to all who celebrate
Armand (Assad Zaman) saying “August 5, 2025, I don’t plan to say ‘love’” to Daniel (Eric Bogosian) on The Vampire Lestat
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Made of words and movies @hfnuala.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
This inspired a reread from me.
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Made of words and movies @hfnuala.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
I read 11 books in July, all fiction. 4 library, 1 reread of a book I own, 5 ebooks, 1 book borrowed from household member. #booksky
Graphic from storygraph of all the books I finished in July.

The House with Good Bones, T Kingfisher
Prestige Drama, Seamus O'Reilly 
Ash, The Secret History, Mary Gentle
The Salt Oracle, Lorraine Wilson 
Wrath Goddess Sing, Maya Deane
Sunshine, Robin McKinley
The Night We Met, Abby Jimenez
Heartstopper Vol 6, Alice Osman
Taiwan Travelogue, Yáng Shuāng-zǐ, translated by Lin King
Witch Trial, Harriet Tyce
Margo's Got Money Troubles, Rufi Thrope
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Left Outside @leftoutside.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
Host the anti-world cup in Avignon, you cowards.
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Made of words and movies @hfnuala.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
Royal Most boxes are beautiful and fascinating and are evidence of a design philosophy that thought really deeply about building to last. Finding an Edward 8th post box is legitimately cool. I am anti royalist but I would not like post boxes to have cyphers from President Cameron or whoever.
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The Author, Séamas O'Reilly @seamas.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
An underreported part of UK Transphobe Lawfare™ is that when they lose, they just... say they won. For all the regrettable sway they do have in courts/govt etc, their real power is in the press. So if they lose, they just pretend they didn't and their press friends print the lie. It's ubiquitous.
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The Booker Prizes @thebookerprizes.com · 27/07/2026
Just one more sleep to go 🤭 Let us know your final predictions in the comments ⤵️
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Made of words and movies @hfnuala.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
Hot take, I know, but the book that won the International Booker Prize this year is very good. Lots of amazing food descriptions and subtle engagement with thinking occupation is bad but still colonised folk do get railways and other bonuses. #booksky
White skinned hand holding a book up in front of a cluttered sitting room. 

The book cover is white with the title, author and first line all printed on it along with the and other stories logo.

Book is Taiwan Travelogue by Yáng Shuāng-zi, translated by Lin King
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Made of words and movies @hfnuala.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
Headshot of a white woman with light red hair, cut short at the sides and kinda quiff like at the top. She is wearing dark plastic framed glasses and a black and blue stripes top. Behind her is an out of focus monstera and a window.
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Made of words and movies @hfnuala.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
Once again. I am going to the hairdresser and know I will leave not looking like tilda swinton. But maybe once it will work.
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Gavan Reilly @gavreilly.com · 26/07/2026
“The famine is over! The curse be damned!! Hit the nuclear button! Mayo have won the All-Ireland!!” An all-time great sports commentary moment from Stephen Grealis and Martin McHugh on Mayo’s Midwest Radio. #gaa
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Made of words and movies @hfnuala.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
Irish vocab learnt from watching the tour: road furniture. I look forward to needing to use it regularly in the future. (Joking aside, it has helped, I really need to find an Irish class in Edinburgh.)
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The Emotion Engine @emotion-engine.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
Thinking about how Osprey, a publishing house almost entirely devoted to publishing military uniform/equipment fetish material disguised as dry but picture heavy non-fiction tomes, put out a book dismantling the right wing mythologization of Sparta with an absolute all-timer table of contents.
Table of Contents
Preface
List of Maps

PART I: THE MYTH OF SPARTA
Introduction

PART II: THE REALITY OF SPARTA
I. Cuckold Kings and Wolves' Work: Behind the Spartan Mirage
II. Archaic Sparta at War: Early Losses, Foreign Roots
III. The Greco-Persian War: The Thermopylae Speed Bump
IV. The Peloponnesian Wars: Floundering at Sea, Surrendering on Land
V. Masters of Greece? Sparta Squanders its Hegemony
VI. The Boeotian War: What Cannot Bend Must Break
VII. The End of Sparta: Irreformable and Irrelevant
VIII. Conclusion: The Bronze Lie

PART III: TANGLING MYTH AND REALITY
IX. The “Moron Label”: The Spartans and the Political Far Right
Appendix A. Historiography and Objectivity
Appendix B. The Fundamentals of Ancient Battle

Glossary
Bibliography
Index
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Jackson O'Lantern-Brien @sprobeforebros.bsky.social · 31/05/2026
GREG DAVIES: seems like a kind of a shit task. Everyone just seems like they're going home normally. ALEX HORNE: well before you say that let's have a look at how Odysseus did. cut to panel of AJAX, MENELAUS, AGAMEMNON, and DIOMEDES who are all staring at ODYSSEUS with his head in his hands
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Made of words and movies @hfnuala.bsky.social · 18/07/2026
Back in the land of cycling commentary in Irish.
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AC Fick 📚 @acfick72.bsky.social · 18/07/2026
Reading is the way mankind delays the inevitable. Reading is the way we shake our fist at the sky. As long as we have these epic, improbable reading projects arrayed before us, we cannot breathe our last: Tell the Angel of Death to come back later; I haven't quite finished VILLETTE ▫️Joe Queenan 2012
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Max B 💙 🔶 🇺🇦 🇬🇧 🇪🇺 @maxbrockbank.com · 16/07/2026
Canvassers out in force in Clacton.
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Evil Jemma "Buy my books" Topaz @jemma.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
Okay, something slightly new. I wrote a story in anger. It's heavy and it made me cry. It is about UK trans stuff. There isn't much plot; it's mostly conversation. There's a lot of talk of suicide. If this doesn't sound like much of an advert, it isn't. write.as/inclusions/a...
write.as
A Huge Problem for a Sane World
\[A Short Story…\] Emma worried the whole ride down that she would get in trouble. She had never really skipped school; I mean, sometime...
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Made of words and movies @hfnuala.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
I know I have that book but can't find it right now. Should I empty all my shelves, rearrange in a more sensible faction and add shelf marks? A descent into madness or a sensible idea?
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Made of words and movies @hfnuala.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
Cycling commentator: isn't this terrain beautiful? Sean Kelly: I have cycled it, no I do not like it.
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Made of words and movies @hfnuala.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
There is no story. Shame. (I then watched two documentaries about it. People's reluctance to admit the problem was with the underdeveloped script is fascinating.) (Also, the harvard prologue and boat epilogue added nothing not already covered by the photo.) #filmsky
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Made of words and movies @hfnuala.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
I watched the director's cut of Heaven's Gate last night. I am now watching the Soderburgh butcher's cut. Suspect this is sunk cost fallacy but I want to believe that someone can wrestle a story out of the beautiful shots. #filmsky
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Made of words and movies @hfnuala.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
I may have found a stirred cocktail that is too medicinal for me. Gin, green chartreuse and cocchi Americano.
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Made of words and movies @hfnuala.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
They were my dad's! I didn't ask to be read for filth like this.
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John Oxley @joxley.jmoxley.co.uk · 06/07/2026
Want the long read on the Lib Dem organiser who ended up doing graphs for Fox Weather.
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Richy Craven @richycraven.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
Brits are asleep. Post cultural treasures.
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Made of words and movies @hfnuala.bsky.social · 05/07/2026
This was me when out for lunch with my SO the other day. He tried very hard to be patient.
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Made of words and movies @hfnuala.bsky.social · 05/07/2026
I tried to listen to the tg4 coverage of the tour. My Irish really needs work.
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Ben @cinemashoebox.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
what's ecclesiastical latin for "WHAT'S UP YOUTUBE today we're doing the PAPAL SCHISM CHALLENGE"
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Alistair Davidson @moh-kohn.eurosky.social · 27/06/2026
Civil servants can't attend pride, nurses can't wear a Palestine badge, but Hillary Cass can speak at Jordan Peterson's conference 👍
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Made of words and movies @hfnuala.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
Gentlefolk of the jury, I present to you, the worst spoon yet.
Snapshot of a flat spoon. It is like a kid's drawing of a spoon rendered in metal.Photo from the side to make it clear how flag the spoon isn't.
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Sridhar Ramesh @radishharmers.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
Reflections on memorizing the Snellen chart: PROS • Optometrists are often impressed with and praise my eyes. CONS • I haven't owned a correctly prescribed pair of glasses since childhood. • Difficulties with tasks requiring use of sight.
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