Take it! It will spring board you toward the project you need for full prof.

South Park's Matt Stone and Trey Parker are storytelling geniuses! I highlight their remarkably simple but effective "but/therefore rule" in every science communication lecture I give.

Books and Other Projects by John Scalzi You may have heard: I write books. Here’s what I’ve published. The Old Man’s War Novels This series of books is what I’m currently best known for. Old Man’s War (2005)…

Came across an obviously "AI"-made article of "Best Sci-Fi and Fantasy Novels of 2025" where every one of the books doesn't actually exist, including one purported to be by me. The internet's filling up with slop, y'all.

Here's a canonical list of my work, btw:

whatever.scalzi.com/about/books-...

The Real Reason Men Should Read Fiction Literature is often pushed on allegedly reluctant men as a machine for empathy. I read it for a different reason.

"Pick up a novel," @jeremygordon.bsky.social @theatlantic.com writes, for the value in seeking "new mental frontiers beyond the accumulation of information...It may shock you, the worlds you end up exploring—and the feelings you will stir up from nothing at all." www.theatlantic.com/books/archiv...

anonymous question “how annoying is Harold Bloom to a Shakespeare scholar?”

I believe the women who say he sexually harassed him so he’s a little more than annoying to me.

read Ian Smith’s “We Are Othello” for a breathtaking critique of scholars like Bloom who argue characters like Hamlet are universal.

I put together a little folder for my department of some readings that shaped my pedagogy, helped me diversify my syllabi, & taught me how to be a better ally to my marginalized students & colleagues. it is by no means exhaustive, but I thought I'd share:

www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/c3ozt...

What Happens When People Don’t Understand How AI Works Despite what tech CEOs might say, large language models are not smart in any recognizably human sense of the word.

This is a really good article about how AI works. And, more importantly, how it doesn’t….

www.theatlantic.com/culture/arch...

"We believe that mapping the damage done and its human costs—and the pushback and resilience work already underway—is necessary groundwork for building and retaining political agency"

Raise your kids to be kind, empathetic, compassionate and respectful. Teach them to embrace differences, to question authority and fear blind loyalty. Raise them to think for themselves, be thoughtful, and have open minds.

Teach them to be good humans.

Fuck this gross, toxic masculinity bullshit.

The New Music Discovery Project, Vol. 24 These Retro-exclusive YouTube playlists offer a mix of contemporary genres curated by a former DJ. And if past is precedent, each is guaranteed to hold at least one new favorite song per listener.

I can’t tell you how many people have said they found new favorite songs via this former-DJ-curated music series. It has already published hundreds of recommendations—and now dozens of unlisted, RETRO-exclusive playlists for subscribers. Hope you’ll check it out.

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Bookish Taste Test:

How similar is our taste in books??

The bookish taste test trend is back! Here's a look at some of my favorite books...

+ 10 pts for each book read
+ 5 pts for each on your TBR
120 points possible!

What's your score??

here’s the syllabus for this course, on “Bad Mothers in Literature: Then & Now,” inspired by Jessamine Chan’s School for Good Mothers:

docs.google.com/document/d/1...

Beyond XX & XY—Human Sex And Gender Were Never A Simple Binary Humans are more complicated than most online experts think.

Without fail, whenever there's an article about a transgender person, the comments have at least one person who boldly declares: “There are only two genders! XX and XY!” The reality, of course, is not that simplistic, far from it.

bsky.app/profile/ians...

Women in Horror: March 2025 Reads Obviously, the best month to read some ladies writing horror is every month. But as March is specifically Women in Horror month, I’ve been primarily reading—you guessed it—horror books writte…

It's the last day of Women in Horror month, so I wrote up a brief recap of all the creepy books I read over the past four weeks. 😍

I read more nonfiction than fiction these days, so psyched for a reminder of stuff to pick up: www.kirkusreviews.com/nonfiction/b...

for those on the market, here are all my job materials: everything from the cover letter to the job talk that got me a tenure-track job at William & Mary + some other materials.

yes, it’s a lottery. yes, it’s also helpful to see successful examples:

www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/yxln6...

Roxane Gay on What Feminism Can Do in This Moment An interview with the best-selling author about her latest project, The Portable Feminist Reader.

I was interviewed for The Nation in advance of the Portable Feminist Reader coming out on 3/25. www.thenation.com/article/soci...

from senator @chrismurphyct.bsky.social chris murphy's recent floor speech, via @davidcorn.bsky.social ...

link.motherjones.com/public/38940...

The 25 Best Stand-Up Specials on Netflix The best stand-up comedy specials to watch on Netflix right now

Beyond flattered to be on this list with so many amazing comedians.

I heard my friend Dan here give a remarkable brief talk about this last month. Thankfully, he’s written it up at length to share.

one of the stupidest things i have had the misfortune of reading today and i am sharing it with you.

To be fair, The Great Gatsby was only a modest success while Fitzgerald was alive; it took off as a "classic" only after it was selected for a WWII program to send books to soldiers. He died in 1940, thinking his soon-to-be-most-famous book was an underachiever.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Council...

Here are the bestselling books of 1925 (in the US). The only book and author I personally recognize is "Arrowsmith" and Sinclair Lewis; the rest are merely Wikipedia entries at this point. All fame is fleeting. We are all dust in the wind.

Funny literary books that I love, a random list/thread, because if we don't laugh, we cry:
1. Tenth of December (George Saunders)
2. Where'd You Go, Bernadette? (Maria Semple)
3. Nothing to See Here (Kevin Wilson)
4. The Portable Veblen (Elizabeth Mckenzie)
5. Lessons in Chemistry (Bonnie Garmus)

I put together a list of some of my favorite short fiction of 2024. If you're thinking about awards and catching up on reading, I have suggestions for you!

acwise.net/favorite-sho...