iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

James Latimer has read Breath and Bone, awaiting Wolf2 @jameslatimer.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

Interesting that this says "The greatest *fantasy* novel since Dune" which just goes to show genre is mutable especially over time.

First paperback edition of The Pastel City by M. John Harrison, with a typically 1971 cover by the great Bruce Pennington with a horseman on a desert bluff overlooking a distant burning city and a train of refugees.

241

James Latimer has read Breath and Bone, awaiting Wolf2 @jameslatimer.bsky.social · 22/06/2026

On one hand it's impressive that they are building a temporary road so quickly to access the crash site and remove damaged trains, but on the other I think it's disappointing the railways don't have a track-based solution (like they used to). Fascinating - and tragic.

An aerial photo of a ploughed field next to a railway line, with a very straight diagonal roadway being built across it in bright grey slabs of what looks like concrete, by a specialist engineering vehicle. The crashed trains can be seen in the background and the caption reads "Engineers are building a temporary road to remove the damaged trains" and credit is to NETWORK RAIL.

000

James Latimer has read Breath and Bone, awaiting Wolf2 @jameslatimer.bsky.social · 23/05/2026

Would you perhaps go so far as to say, "Work sets you free?" 🤔

Quotes from Alan Milburn on the BBC,
'Directly addressing those in the Labour Party nervous about reforms to welfare he said: "Labour is what it says on the tin.

"It's the party of work. Work gives purpose. Work gives income. Work gives meaning."'

120

James Latimer has read Breath and Bone, awaiting Wolf2 @jameslatimer.bsky.social · 22/05/2026

These were an aspirational purchase (secondhand) but I wonder if someone else would have more use for them. Maybe @navalairhistory.com knows?

A stack of 21 volumes of Time Life Books' "The Epic of Flight" with silver typography on navy blue covers - The Soviet Air Force, Fighting Jets, The Jet Age, The Luftwaffe, The Bush Pilots, Flying the Mail, The Pathfinders, Barnstormers & Speed Kings, The Giant Airships, The First Aviators, The Road to Kitty Hawk, Architects of Air Power, Knights of the Air, Designers and Test Pilots, Women Aloft, The Airline Builders, The Explorers, The RAF at War, America in the Air War, The Carrier War, Soldiers of Fortune

110

James Latimer has read Breath and Bone, awaiting Wolf2 @jameslatimer.bsky.social · 02/05/2026

Snap! Only in this one he has brooms in his fortified wine...🤔

Cover of Simenon's Maigret novel Le Port des Brumes (aka The Misty Harbour, Death of a Harbour Master, Maigret and the Death of a Harbor Master, The Port of Shadows) French livre de poche edition with a sepia photo of a small harbour with a wooden wharf or jetty, stacked lobster pots, and some small open boats tied up beyond.

110

James Latimer has read Breath and Bone, awaiting Wolf2 @jameslatimer.bsky.social · 29/04/2026

Connie Willis wrote about this future industry in 1994 (except it was done manually, not by AI, which would at least be more accurate):

Book cover of Remake by Connie Willis (1994) featuring an art deco meets Blade Runner cityscape with lots of giants screens all showing scenes from classic movies including Casablanca, Top Hat, Marilyn Monroe, etc.

0441

James Latimer has read Breath and Bone, awaiting Wolf2 @jameslatimer.bsky.social · 21/03/2026

Look what you can find in the Galleries "TG Jones" - Bristol, of course.

Signed title page of Mark Lawrence's The Book That Wouldn't Burn, on a shop shelf.

000

James Latimer has read Breath and Bone, awaiting Wolf2 @jameslatimer.bsky.social · 15/02/2026

Gotta say I'm still fond of this one 😅 (But yes Jean Marsh is amazing in Willow.)

The White Witch from The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe but the 1980s BBC version played by Barbara Kellerman, who could chew cardboard BBC scenery with the best of them. She's on her sleigh in front of a grey sky and evergreens, showing her chalk-white face, spiky silver crown and shaggy white fur mantle.

010

James Latimer has read Breath and Bone, awaiting Wolf2 @jameslatimer.bsky.social · 25/01/2026

Are you fucking kidding me with this? We remember 2016-2020, and the rest! "I don't know of any peaceful protester that shows up with a gun and ammunition rather than a sign."

BBC screenshot of Noem quote: "They responded according to their training, and took action to defend the officer's life and those of the public around him. And, I don't know of any peaceful protester that shows up with a gun and ammunition rather than a sign."

010

James Latimer has read Breath and Bone, awaiting Wolf2 @jameslatimer.bsky.social · 23/01/2026

So I'm moving soon, and also being realistic, so if anyone out there wants something from my "classics" TBR shelf, I'd be happy to send to a good home. Seems a shame to just dump them on the charity shops. 😕

A white bookshelf with five shelves of paperbacks, mostly the old A or pocket size, of older SF&F, with authors like Blish, Cherryh, Douglass, Elliott, Jones, Moon, Saberhagen, Vance and more...

362

James Latimer has read Breath and Bone, awaiting Wolf2 @jameslatimer.bsky.social · 21/01/2026

Guess which one of these has 200 extra pages and 28 extra chapters? But WHY? Why can you never trust classics???

Two copies of The Man in the Iron Mask by Dumas, one smaller and bound in blue with gold lettering on the spine by Collins library of classics (no date but old), and one a Penguin Popular Classic in faded beige, almost twice as large, and yet...

010

James Latimer has read Breath and Bone, awaiting Wolf2 @jameslatimer.bsky.social · 08/01/2026

So, on a bit of an escapist whim, I rewatched The Sword and the Sorcerer for the first time in 30 years, and it's actually...not bad? I mean, it's uneven, cartoonish, confused and overcrowded, but for all that, quite enjoyable in a way more sophisticated or recent films sometimes aren't.

The classic film poster for The Sword and the Sorcerer, very 70s Frazetta-style, with a muscle-bound warrior wielding a three-bladed sword (yes!) against a shadowy demon while a scantily-clad woman is threatened by a snake (yep!). The font is also classic metallic faux-fantasy fare.

120

James Latimer has read Breath and Bone, awaiting Wolf2 @jameslatimer.bsky.social · 03/01/2026

Snakewood by Adrian Selby, one of the most intriguing, inventive and memorable fantasies I've read, while also among the grimmest, is apparently on sale for $1.99 on ebook so now's your chance to ring in the new year with a brilliantly crafted but bloody tale of fallen legends (or save for later).

The bright blood red cover of Snakewood by Adrian Selby, with a mysterious hooded figure in a dirty white robe sitting cross-legged in the centre, a sword by his side. The tagline reads "A lifetime of enemies has its own price".

032

James Latimer has read Breath and Bone, awaiting Wolf2 @jameslatimer.bsky.social · 02/01/2026

No cheating, reskeet the most recent pictures of your pet(s)

An idiot tabby cat sitting plum on a winter hat in the middle of a table covered with a yellow floral tablecloth in a room with yellow walls, staring gormlessly to the left of camera.

030

James Latimer has read Breath and Bone, awaiting Wolf2 @jameslatimer.bsky.social · 29/12/2025

This ain't my childhood copy, but a random find - in very good condition! I actually read (or had read to me) this (American?) edition:

A screenshot of a cover for Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising, showing a dark horseman on a black hose, rearing up on a snowy doorstep over a prone boy who has raised a hand to shield his face, all backlit by the light from the open door. The Rider's black cloak billows behind him, and black rooks swoop in the margins of the scene.

180

James Latimer has read Breath and Bone, awaiting Wolf2 @jameslatimer.bsky.social · 08/12/2025

Ye gods but the @barristersecret.bsky.social's 2018 book is (justly) infuriating. Yet another vital public service allowed to rot, cuts to funding leading to waste, injustice, and anguish. Don't imagine anything's changed with the new government either...

A slightly battered copy of The Secret Barrister, Stories of the Law and How It's Broken, a white paperback with an image of a barrister in robes and wig with yellow scribbles obscuring his face.

120

James Latimer has read Breath and Bone, awaiting Wolf2 @jameslatimer.bsky.social · 22/11/2025

Absolutely nonsensical ship here from the Welsh National Opera. AI slop I wonder? 🙄

A nonsensical two-masted sailing vessel with a giant on board, square sides, a bowsprit with a disappearing flag, and one sail - rigged backwards on the second mast.

220

James Latimer has read Breath and Bone, awaiting Wolf2 @jameslatimer.bsky.social · 15/10/2025

A familiar issue to anyone who has read other archival material of the era...

My copy of Splinter of the Mind's Eye by Alan Dean Foster, the 1978 sequel to Star Wars that doesn't know about the revelations in Empire Strikes Back - white cover with red Star Wars font title, a picture of Darth Vader confronting a prone Luke and Leia (both in jumpsuits) in a forest where a red light shines from the mound he's standing on - "From the adventures of Luke Skywalker - based on the characters and situations created by George Lucas" (and by that it means loosely!) and "featuring Luke, Princess Leia, Darth Vader, Theeepio & Artoo Detoo (sic) in a spectacular new adventure!'

020

James Latimer has read Breath and Bone, awaiting Wolf2 @jameslatimer.bsky.social · 07/10/2025

Sorry not to reply sooner. If you're happy with some TLC it might work for you. Can you collect from Swindon though? Here's a picture of the vintage machine:

A white 1960s Kenwood Chef stand mixer with powder blue details, also has blender and juicer (maybe?) attachments.

000

James Latimer has read Breath and Bone, awaiting Wolf2 @jameslatimer.bsky.social · 28/09/2025

I also enjoy the time HMS Vanguard went to the pub on the way to the breakers...

An aerial black and white photo of Portsmouth harbour, with a large battleship nosing into the shoreline, dwarfing the buildings. A tugboat lurks beside her, presumably embarrassed.

0511

James Latimer has read Breath and Bone, awaiting Wolf2 @jameslatimer.bsky.social · 21/09/2025

Maleficent Seven is giving me Villains by Necessity vibes, unsurprisingly, and that book is a definite hidden gem from an era before authors* did this sort of thing. *men, anyway 😏

The colourful cover of Villains by Necessity by Eve Forward, published 1995 and looking like it with an illustration by Darrell K Sweet of a knight on horseback in full plate and tourney plumage charging a gold and green dragon with outstretched wings, a curing trail, and a sharp jaws spewing a gout of yellow fire.

010

James Latimer has read Breath and Bone, awaiting Wolf2 @jameslatimer.bsky.social · 20/09/2025

I seem to have found an Australian book, far from its place of origin. This may explain the slightly underwhelming cover, perhaps?

A paperback edition of Detection Unlimited by Georgette Heyer with a plain green cover, shiny gold lettering for the author's name, plain orange for the title, quotes from the Times and Daily Mail, and the only image is a monochrome photo of a wooden bench with leaves, faint and faded in around the edges.

The publishing page, listing the Australian address of Redwood Editions, an imprint of Hinkler Books, Dingley, VICtoria, and the reservation of all rights etc. Original copyright 1953, published 2001.

000

James Latimer has read Breath and Bone, awaiting Wolf2 @jameslatimer.bsky.social · 18/09/2025

The ages of actors in this photo are 58, 25, 50, 34 and 65 respectively.

A photo of Benicio del Toro (58), Chase Infiniti (25), Leonardo di Caprio (50), Teyana Taylor (34) and Sean Penn (65) at a presser for One Battle After Another. The men are in black suits, though Di Caprio is in all black with no tie, while the women are in high fashion items of disparate nature.

010

James Latimer has read Breath and Bone, awaiting Wolf2 @jameslatimer.bsky.social · 04/09/2025

The morning views from the train have been quite spectacular but hard to capture, so I'm sharing this chap from Carlisle:

120

James Latimer has read Breath and Bone, awaiting Wolf2 @jameslatimer.bsky.social · 31/08/2025

OK, hear me out. A Lord of the Rings remake, but with these two taking The One Ring to Mordor:

Two figures charge through a multicoloured swirling mist (with rats), swords pointed ahead and daggers ready behind; one is a large, thick-thewed man with long blond hair, a beard and fur waistcoat; the other is a small, lithe fellow with a dark hooded cloak. There are rats in the foreground crawling on a root or branch. They are of course Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser from Fritz Leiber, from the Centipede press editions, but I can't find out the artist!

1283

James Latimer has read Breath and Bone, awaiting Wolf2 @jameslatimer.bsky.social · 24/08/2025

Clearing out some spare books so if anyone in the UK wants them let me know (tho I can't DM!). Happy to ship for cost or bring to Bristolcon in October.