a catalogue of the library, with its keepers

Most of what I know came from books, games, songs, and the better corners of the internet. This is the shelf I'd actually hand you, organised by the questions I keep asking, not by format or genre. The longer, ongoing version lives in my newsletter, Theorianous.

Now readingThe Hearing TrumpetLeonora Carrington
On repeatMind GamesJohn Lennon
The Bookworm, painted after an old bestiary
The Bookworm eats its way through the whole case and is never full

Case I

Books about books & mazes

21 volumes

The Homunculus, painted after an old bestiary
The Homunculus a small philosopher, bottled, still asking

Case II

Old questions

16 volumes

The Ouroboros, painted after an old bestiary
The Ouroboros a serpent that begins where it ends

Case III

Physics for the curious

5 volumes

The Barnacle-Goose Tree, painted after an old bestiary
The Barnacle-Goose Tree where geese came from, according to everyone, for four hundred years

Case IV

How the world got like this

11 volumes

The Basilisk, painted after an old bestiary
The Basilisk its gaze changes whatever it looks at

Case V

Art & ways of seeing

7 volumes

The Simurgh, painted after an old bestiary
The Simurgh a bird that has seen the world destroyed three times

Case VI

Other worlds

7 volumes

The Vegetable Lamb, painted after an old bestiary
The Vegetable Lamb grows on a stalk and grazes quietly

Case VII

Quiet, strange

12 volumes

The Manticore, painted after an old bestiary
The Manticore a lion, a man and a scorpion; all three have opinions

Case VIII

Myth & the esoteric

12 volumes

The Sciapod, painted after an old bestiary
The Sciapod the traveller who brings his own shade

Case IX

Wide world

25 volumes

The Blemmye, painted after an old bestiary
The Blemmye reads with his whole chest

Case X

Panels

3 volumes

Appendix · Played

  • Stardew Valley
  • World of Warcraft