iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Roland Allen gazes on the space where Chapter XVIII shall be @zibaldoni.bsky.social · 57m

Ever wonder how books get ordered and into your favourite indie bookstore? You may find this interesting (not a complete answer, but lots to think about) digitalbibliophile.substack.com/p/2026-limit...

digitalbibliophile.substack.com

2026 Limited Editions

Presenting our limited editions, and a note on the state of publishing.

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Roland Allen gazes on the space where Chapter XVIII shall be @zibaldoni.bsky.social · 1h

My amazing North American publisher is the Canadian indie, Biblioasis. Their free substack is an excellent behind-the-scenes view of the struggles and joys of indie publishing, and I recommend it to you all. @biblioasis.bsky.social digitalbibliophile.substack.com/p/books-and-...

digitalbibliophile.substack.com

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Dan Sinykin @dan-sinnamon.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

I am proud of what Josh and I accomplished in this essay, which took deep reporting and data gathering, and which ultimately runs to a hearty 7000+ words to explain what's really going on with Jewish American and Israeli books in US publishing as PEN America and the ADL run cover for genocide

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Jack Cousteau ⚓️ @angrywaterman.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

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Julia Carrie Wong @joolia.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

yes my bull went rogue in your china shop but I think we can all agree there’s no liability here it’s an agentic being

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Roland Allen gazes on the space where Chapter XVIII shall be @zibaldoni.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Reading a biography of one of history's great book editors, I find my mind boggled by its technically awful prose. Literally every paragraph (two chapters in) has had at least one sentence in the wrong spot. There is no flow. Such a pain, and a pity. And a terrible edit.

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ContempraInn 🌹 @contemprainn.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

I’m just saying Billie Joe MacAllister should’ve survived that jump.

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Sexy Plato's Cave @andrewblair.co.uk · 16/09/2026

The arts industry in the UK: we contribute so much money to the economy but we are dying, please help Lisa Nandy: Village Parish Council: we held a pretend referendum Lisa Nandy: I'm listening

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Matthew Teller @matthewteller.com · 13/09/2026

Saving Raja's archive from the threat of destruction in Palestine was a massive undertaking. It took 2 years on a shoestring budget. We had to work quickly & quietly to avoid unwanted attention. Now we are crowdfunding to make sure the work can continue: www.gofundme.com/the-raja-she...

gofundme.com

Donate to The Raja Shehadeh Archive, organized by Matthew Teller

PALESTINIAN ARCHIVE SAVED —But Hard Work Begins Now! An important Palestinian literary, cul… Matthew Teller needs your support for The Raja Shehadeh Archive

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Roland Allen gazes on the space where Chapter XVIII shall be @zibaldoni.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Here's my boarding school discourse: for 30+ years I've been daydreaming of burning down the one I was sent to. Absolute bucket list item. Am sure I'm not alone.

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Roland Allen gazes on the space where Chapter XVIII shall be @zibaldoni.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

How nice for one's work to be acknowledged in the FT! Not something that happens every day...

Please use the sharing tools found via the share button at the top or side of articles. Copying articles to share with others is a breach of FT.com T&Cs and Copyright Policy. Email licensing@ft.com to buy additional rights. Subscribers may share up to 10 or 20 articles per month using the gift article service. More information can be found at https://help.ft.com/faq/gifting-and-sharing-an-article/what-is-a-gift-article/.
https://www.ft.com/content/505473d6-a2fe-4cb6-ae64-4838f6bb9dcb?syn-25a6b1a6=1

In The Notebook: A History of Thinking on Paper, Roland Allen details the evolution of notebooks through history, and observes that during the second world war, “many Europeans reacted by putting pen to paper and recording what they saw as the world they knew was upended”. Similarly, when asked about this renewed appreciation for the wonders of pen and paper, many stationers point to the pandemic and the hyper-digital age we live in. While stationery may have fallen out of fashion in favour of digital communication and solutions, many people are now returning to it as an antidote to the more toxic effects of tech. A tangible, and now often nostalgic, means of communicating, documenting, remembering, recording, planning, organising, creating — something humans have been doing for centuries. What does feel new is the rise of the contemporary specialist stationer.

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Roland Allen gazes on the space where Chapter XVIII shall be @zibaldoni.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

I had to research laptops v. notebooks in great depth for my book, and the evidence was conclusive. This is just great.

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Roland Allen gazes on the space where Chapter XVIII shall be @zibaldoni.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Having had an influx of medievalists recently (wēs þū hāl!) I resurface this, relating to my most joyful medieval moment of 2026.

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Roland Allen gazes on the space where Chapter XVIII shall be @zibaldoni.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

This find is INCREDIBLE. So few of these tablets survive: they were Europe's best IT for millennia. This example from the period when paper notebooks were arriving in Western Mediterranean, but had not become common elsewhere. I want to know more.

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Roland Allen gazes on the space where Chapter XVIII shall be @zibaldoni.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

The phenomena explored in this excellent thread by Cory 'enshittification' Doctorow map well onto corporate scholarly–academic publishing: a few huge players locking up the market, then raking in obscene margins at the expense of the global taxpayer.

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Roland Allen gazes on the space where Chapter XVIII shall be @zibaldoni.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

Having endured some very badly written scholarly books recently, I'm utterly delighted to have to read this from cover to cover. Brilliantly done by Anne Witchard. Lucid prose, well organised, and balances the large and small scale perfectly. hkupress.hku.hk/index.php?ro...

hkupress.hku.hk

Lao She in London

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🏳️‍⚧️ ⚧️ THRaKaTTaKeR 🤘🏻🏳️‍🌈 @thrakattaker.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

Microsoft wants to build three massive AI data centres in Leeds. It’ll drain thousands of litres of water from the River Aire and become the city's biggest carbon emitter. We can still stop the council's final sign-off, but we need more voices. Add your name: you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/pr...

you.38degrees.org.uk

Stop the Microsoft AI megasite in Leeds!

Microsoft want to build three huge AI data centres at Skelton Grange. It would drain the River Aire and become the city's biggest carbon emitter. We can still stop it - add your name to the petition.

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Adam Rutherford @adamrutherford.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

‘I’M ATHENA AND DON’T FEEL TOO BAD ABOUT YOUR CRIMES, STEVE ODYSSEY’

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Christian Thiels @christianthiels.eurosky.social · 06/09/2026

"Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot announced on Friday that his department is abandoning the so-called Mercator projection, which artificially enlarges polar regions and visually downplays the size of equatorial areas." @euronews.com www.euronews.com/2026/09/05/p...

euronews.com

Paris drops Mercator projection: France now looks smaller on world maps

France is redrawing its world map: deeming the Mercator projection misleading, the foreign ministry will drop it in favour of a map that better reflects actual continental sizes, especially Africa.

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Roland Allen gazes on the space where Chapter XVIII shall be @zibaldoni.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

IS THIS YOUR GRANNY? Was your grandad at the Reform conference? Heroic scenes as they charge a woman who's restrained by multiple young men, pull her hair, and hit her with a metal walking stick. Can't wait to see this pair of thugs in court. Stills from video posted by @thenewarab.bsky.social

A white-haired woman uses both hands to forcibly pull the hair of a younger woman who is being restrained by a man.

A white-haired man in glasses grabs the head and face of a young woman while a white-haired woman pulls her hair.

A white-haired man strikes the head of a young woman with a metal walking stick.

Slightly obscured view of the white-haired woman

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Roland Allen gazes on the space where Chapter XVIII shall be @zibaldoni.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Here are some excellent reasons why today's hard-working author shouldn't promote their Kindle Daily Deal...

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By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 04/09/2026

The first item on a typical Amazon search results page is 29% more expensive than the best match for your search. The top row is 25% more expensive. The best result is usually on the second screen, somewhere around the 17th position: pluralistic.net/2023/11/03/s... 34/

pluralistic.net

Pluralistic: Big Tech’s “attention rents” (03 Nov 2023) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow

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Roland Allen gazes on the space where Chapter XVIII shall be @zibaldoni.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

I don't normally give a toss about this, but if you're literally planning to stand for election in Holborn then you *might* learn how actual Londoners pronounce it.

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Daniel Moser @dmoser.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Pollution levels in London after 10 years of advancing sustainable transport.

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Joshua Eaton @joshuaeaton.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

“There’s a new Mr. Beast book.” You bolt awake in your workshop in Mainz. It’s 1450. You’re Johannes Gutenberg, and you’ve changed your mind. The future cannot come to pass. Your printing press must burn.

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Philippe Auclair @philippeauclair.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

To anyone who does not live in Paris but visits the city at regular intervals (as I do), the transformation has been staggering: Paris has been reclaimed from cars. It can be done, and could be done in London too. It is all about political will and taking the risk of being unpopular - for a while.

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Dmitry Grozoubinski @explaintrade.com · 26/08/2026

I'm not an economist but my back of the envelope math suggests that Anthropic, SpaceX and OpenAI can't all simultaneously sell $30 trillion dollars worth of enterprise solutions to a global economy where the sum total of all economic activity currently adds up to under $120t.

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Mobeena @mobeena.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

I don’t know what the library equivalent of dimming our lights is but whatever it is, we should be doing it for Dolly because what that woman did for literacy deserves so much more recognition than it got

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Roland Allen gazes on the space where Chapter XVIII shall be @zibaldoni.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

Only yesterday was I talking to an old friend about ghastly old American cookbooks and how they use 'can of soup' as an 'ingredient'

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Roland Allen gazes on the space where Chapter XVIII shall be @zibaldoni.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

We authors have an ongoing dilemma. Most of us loathe Amazon, but recognise that we have to work with it. Some of us actively participate in its dubious market practices - like predatory pricing. Such is life!

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Roland Allen gazes on the space where Chapter XVIII shall be @zibaldoni.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

I've heard this "AI is just like the printing press, and people hated the printing press too" line too many times now and it is Complete Bollocks on multiple levels. 😱😱😱

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Roland Allen gazes on the space where Chapter XVIII shall be @zibaldoni.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

Sad news. With Seni, Ted was a huge mover in the book trade, selling huge numbers to people who *never* go to bookshops. Including a LOT of Jamie Oliver, yes, but also Booker shortlists, plenty of challenging classics and surprises like George Simenon sets. RIP www.thebookseller.com/obituaries/t...

thebookseller.com

Ted Smart, ‘visionary’ founder of The Book People, dies aged 83

Founder of The Book People Edward Smart, known as Ted, has died aged 83. He is survived by his second wife, three sons and four grandchildren.

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Chris ❤️‍🔥🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ 🏴 @brutumfulmen.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

He is NOT WRONG.

A post from user mattobrien: Ate at a diner that had A "FUCK ICE" sign in the window, and I've never ordered huevos rancheros so quickly in my life. A "FUCK ICE" sign is basically a Michelin star for Mexican food in Los Angeles.

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Roland Allen gazes on the space where Chapter XVIII shall be @zibaldoni.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

I've heard this "AI is just like the printing press, and people hated the printing press too" line too many times now and it is Complete Bollocks on multiple levels. 😱😱😱

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Henry Mance @henrymance.ft.com · 19/08/2026

Woah.

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Ada Palmer @adapalmer.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

In the Renaissance people theorized, since the Aeneid is great, if you wrote poems made only of words & phrases from the Aeneid rearranged they should be great too, since a great source regurgitated should yield greatness. They produced NOTHING we still read. Thinking about that a lot lately.

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