In the Margins

Written Beside the Book

Every note a curator has left beside a book. The shortest reviews on IBDB, and often the most useful.

Showing 73 to 96 of 172 notes

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“Digging, and then the rest of it.”
on Death of a Naturalistin Poems For A Wet Fortnight @saltmarsh
“the only first contact novel that admits contact might not be possible.”
on Solarisin Hard SF That Respects Your Time @kepler22b
“And the best about one that was allowed to fail.”
on Midnight in Chernobylin How Things Actually Get Built @ivor_stack
“Two commissions in the middle. The rest holds.”
on Trick Mirrorin Essay Collections That Earn The Hardback @mx_marginalia
“Bring a friend.”
on Tess of the d'Urbervillesin Nineteenth Century, Twenty-First Century Feelings @plainjaneausten
“The best book about a project ever written.”
on The Making of the Atomic Bombin How Things Actually Get Built @ivor_stack
“School copy. Does it count if you were made to?”
on Nineteen Eighty-fourin The Pile (2026)@tinyapartmentbigtbr
“short. devastating. structurally perfect.”
on Flowers for Algernonin Hard SF That Respects Your Time @kepler22b
“Would not wait. Would skim in the branch.”
on Atomic Habitsin Worth The Hold Queue @libbyoverdrive
“Despite the footnotes.”
on Consider the Lobsterin Essay Collections That Earn The Hardback @mx_marginalia
“Begin here, because everything after is a footnote to it.”
on The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentlemanin Novels That Argue With Themselves @theodore_p
“The coldest of the four and the shortest on comfort.”
on Nineteen Eighty-fourin Short And Cold @saltmarsh
“No detective at all, which is the extreme version of the idea.”
on The Talented Mr. Ripleyin Detectives Who Are No Help At All @verity_lane
“Four essays and three picture sequences. Nothing since has bettered it.”
on Ways of Seeingin Essay Collections That Earn The Hardback @mx_marginalia
“Manderley is a character and it wins.”
on Rebeccain Houses That Are The Villain @bleakhouse_bex
“soft science, hard thinking. it belongs.”
on The Left Hand of Darknessin Hard SF That Respects Your Time @kepler22b
“Three hundred and sixty-one chapters. Do the arithmetic and start in January.”
on War and Peacein A Chapter A Week, For A Year @the_slow_reader
“Nobody in this book is well and that is the appeal.”
on Wuthering Heightsin Nineteenth Century, Twenty-First Century Feelings @plainjaneausten
“Thirty thousand words. Changed what magazines thought they were for.”
on Hiroshimain Nonfiction That Reads Like A Novel @w_okonkwo
“Ninety pages. The standard everything else is measured against.”
on The Fire Next Timein Essay Collections That Earn The Hardback @mx_marginalia
“Fantasy, but the payoff is pure crime novel construction.”
on The Hero of Agesin Plots That Actually Land @verity_lane
“the hardest one here. worth it.”
on Blindsightin Hard SF That Respects Your Time @kepler22b
“Would wait. Get the audio if you can.”
on Becomingin Worth The Hold Queue @libbyoverdrive
“Ninety minutes. No excuse not to.”
on Small Things Like Thesein The Shelf By The Door @margaretreads