By Daniel Dern: I came late to discovering John Crowley’s Engine Summer – the book came out in 1970, during the years I was reading less SF – but it became one of my two favorite SF books (tied wit…

(1) READERLESS DIGESTION. Brian Keene’s blog for “8/18/26” ends with a provocative question: …You probably remember how the generative AI companies — to get around pesky authors complaining that th…

By Daniel Dern: Among the many sidebags and back-bags I’ve seen (and toted) to Cons over the years/decades, ones that, once I began aware of them, I commonly saw were the black Con-Survival Bag of …

By Daniel Dern: Boskone 63 – “the longest-running science fiction & fantasy convention in New England” — was held Friday, February 13 through Sunday, February 16, 2026 at the Westin Bosto…

Winged Arisia full logo (transparent) By Daniel P. Dern: Arisia is one of the Boston/New England-area’s three annual long-running Fan-run science fiction/fantasy Cons (conventions), the other two b…

By Daniel Dern: Attending Readercon 34, “The conference on imaginative literature” (per the web site), held Thursday July 17-Sunday July 20, 2025 at the Boston Marriott Burlington hotel in Burlingt…

By Daniel Dern: First of several disclaimers: This is far from a news item, although it’s possible-to-likely at least some of the info here will be news and of interest to some of you. As my friend…

I Won’t Scroll Up! Book Review: Pat Murphy’s The Adventures Of Mary Darling (Recommended!) By Daniel Dern: (A shortish review, because you shouldn’t need a lot of info or (my) opinion to decide to …

By Daniel Dern: In response to (my) Item (15), Cat Furniture in Pixel Scroll 4/23/25 Pixeler on the Roof, Cat Eldridge commented: 15) I’m reasonably sure that the website where the cat sofa image i…

By Daniel Dern: In a comment on the March 18, 2025 Scroll re Item 12: “The Shadow Knows”, Quartermain said: “I wouldn’t mind a 20/30’s pulp hero shared universe. The Shadow, The Spider, The Phantom…

Boskone 62 Pocket Program (cover) [Image by Theresa Mather] By Daniel Dern: Until Arisia 2025 this January (which, per my File 770 report, I went to), I hadn’t been to a Con since Boskone 57 …

By Daniel Dern: Probably 80-90% of my comic book reading these days is via my (12.9″ display—ideal for reading comics full-size) iPad, using a mix of my HooplaDigital and Libby accounts (free…

Karen Pryor By Daniel Dern: Karen Pryor passed away on January 4, 2025, at age 92, but I only just learned about this from today’s New York Times obituaries. Via Wikipedia: Karen Liane Pryor …

By Daniel Dern: Arisia 2025 — “New England’s largest and most diverse science fiction and fantasy convention” (per the con’s web page header) — was held Friday J…

By Daniel P. Dern: Barry (N.) Malzberg passed away on December 19, 2024, at 85. His hats and achievements within the SF world/community include: award-winning writer (also writing under sundry pen …

By Daniel Dern: For (us) constant, curious readers, one of the values of brick’n’mortar public libraries (and bookstores, particularly used bookstores), is the opportunistic proximal ad…

By Daniel P. Dern: If your bag of choice to, ahem, hold your stuff in was the original ThinkGeek Messenger Bag Of Holding (“R/MBoH”) and yours has worn out — or you missed buying …

PHOTO: Good Dog Records & Books at 1187 Centre Street offers a variety of used books, albums and other rare finds. Photo by Daniel Dern Where new bookstores can be...

By Daniel Dern: As I’ve previously scrolled, one of the many fannish merch categories is specialty decks of cards – as in, with comic, movie, or other images, rather than specialized for doing card magic (like, say, my Svengali Tarot deck). Here’s…

By Daniel Dern: A monthish ago, I’d re-topped-off my LBFSTBR (Library-Borrows-Foothill-Stack-To-Be-Read) from the public library with, among other books, The Avram Davidson Treasury, Steven King’s new collection You Like It Darker, Barry Malzberg’s…