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Thoughts of Sorts by Georges Perec Intellectual, noun - an 'educated person who is interested in complicated ideas and enjoys studying and careful thinking' French Intellectual, noun - someone who just, I dunno, makes shit up. I guess.

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Tom Shapira @tomshaps.bsky.social · 19h

"New from Marvel: Midnight Columbo"

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Tom Shapira @tomshaps.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

"According to several different witnesses the suspect, who burst through the wall fist first, looked like 'some Roman god of war!'"

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Tom Shapira @tomshaps.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

"My Columbo Sense is tingling. Someone was murdered in an extremely convoluted manner."

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Tom Shapira @tomshaps.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

"My god, Bruce Wayne is The Batman!"

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Tom Shapira @tomshaps.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

The Lost Pianos of Siberia by Sophie Roberts (audiobook). This feels like a good long magazine article that has been blown-up to fit book size. The main subject is interesting but she keeps jumping to other stuff to make a more generalized point about Russia that doesn't really work.

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Tom Shapira @tomshaps.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

A Walker in the City by Alfred Kazin A decent memoir / isn't-new-york-great type work. Turns out I really can't get enough of old New York (having visited once in all my life for a very brief period).

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Tom Shapira @tomshaps.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

G.I.Joe Compendium 3 by Larry Hama, MD Bright, Herb Trimpe et al. All the build-up to (and including) issue #100 is pure gold - some of the best mainstream comics of that period. After that... Well, the wheels aren't fully off but you can hear them struggling under the weight of continuity.

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Tom Shapira @tomshaps.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Nothing but respect for MY Chainsaw Man

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Tom Shapira @tomshaps.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Absolute Ronin by Frank Miller, Lynn Varley and John Costanza Both awful ('inspiring awe) and awful ('terrible') at once. That kind of thing you can only do if you're convinced the sun is shining directly from your ass... And you know what? For that moment the sun was shining bright!

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Tom Shapira @tomshaps.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

There's an argument to be made that OMAC #1 is Kirby's best work. And by 'argument' I mean 'stating an objective fact'

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Tom Shapira @tomshaps.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Copra Round Eight by Michel Fiffe A (deliberate?) anti-climax. It builds so fast and explodes so big only to end with an issue of minor settling of some old scores. Feels like it could have gone longer. Probably good it didn't.

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Tom Shapira @tomshaps.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Dusk and Other Stories by James Salter A very good collection of shorts, mostly on the subject of disappointment and the slow fading away. Not quite as good as his novel, The Hunters, but the man could sling a sentence.

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Tom Shapira @tomshaps.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

In Cold Blood by Truman Capote A good book that feels like the patient zero for a lot of terrible journalistic writing. I'm kinda torn-up about how to treat the 'non-fiction novel' thing.

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Tom Shapira @tomshaps.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

All these characters are looking at you like "you're actually doing it? You gonna spend a three figure sum on a Millennium Omnibus?!"

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Tom Shapira @tomshaps.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole and Albert Monteys It's good. It's good because Monteys is a good artist with a very good foundation to build on. At the same time something is lacking: the adaptation is too 'talky' and unwilling to fully commit to the grotesques of the original.

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Tom Shapira @tomshaps.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Copra Round Seven by Michel Fiffe The Beatles are good at rock. Orson Welles is good at movies. Michel Fiffe is good at comics. What more can I say?

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Tom Shapira @tomshaps.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Well... It's NOT Arctic Vulpix

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Tom Shapira @tomshaps.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Finally, I'll be able to ask Ishmael what is his favourite Pokémon.

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Tom Shapira @tomshaps.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible by Peter Pomerantsev (audiobook) Good. But it's one of these books that is a bit too dependent on anecdotes to make its grand thesis (not that I disagree with it). Depressing to think it came out a decade ago and how worse things have gotten.

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Tom Shapira @tomshaps.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Phoo Action By Jamie Hewlett and Matthew Wakeham. Terrible.

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Tom Shapira @tomshaps.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Announcing the release party for SCREAM BLOODY GORE

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