FAQ
What counts as a blook?
Book-shaped writing that was born on the open web and accumulated in public: diaries, serials, letters, logs. The test I actually apply: can a stranger start at the beginning and walk the archive to the end (or the present) without an account, an app, or an inbox? If yes, it has a spine, and it's eligible.
Do newsletters count?
Not by default. An inbox is not an archive. A newsletter with a complete, public, walkable archive counts — two on the shelf got there that way. See the notes for the long version of this argument, which I have now written four times and mean more each time.
Why don't shelf entries link to the works?
Because links rot and titles don't. The 2025 audit (in notes) found roughly one entry in five had moved or died within three years. Every shelved work is findable in under a minute from its title and the author's handle, and that indirection survives redesigns, domain lapses and platform funerals. Paper librarians figured this out a while ago: catalogue the work, not the shelf it happens to stand on today.
How do I suggest something?
Email [email protected] with the title and where it lives. Two rules, both absolute:
1. Don't suggest your own work under a borrowed name. I check, it's embarrassing for both of us, and it has happened nine times.
2. If the author writes under a pseudonym, don't tell me who they are. The shelf catalogues what people chose to publish, not what they chose to keep.
Can you put me in touch with an author?
No. I forward nothing in either direction, praise included. Most of the writers here published at arm's length on purpose; the catalogue respects the arm.
Is there an RSS feed?
Not anymore — the generator broke in the 2024 move (colophon has the sorry history) and hand-writing XML lost its charm within a week. The site changes a few times a year; checking notes seasonally will not cost you a story.
Why is the site so plain?
It's five pages about other people's writing. Anything more would be the catalogue elbowing the books off the shelf.