Zoë

@readabilitea.bsky.social

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Bookseller with perpetually wonky glasses 📚 also into knitting and visible mending (she/her) English/Nederlands/Deutsch

A stack of books containing Crossing the Wine-Dark Sea by Emily Wilson, A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes, Of Woman Born by Adrienne Rich, The Iliad (translated by Emily Wilson), American Hagwon by Min Jin Lee, and A History of Booksellers and the Bookshop by Jean-Yves Mollier. The stack is on a brown wooden table with a pothos vine and bookshelves in the background
A copy of Crossing the Wine-Dark Sea by Emily Wilson and Emily Wilson's translation of the Iliad on a train table
The calf part of my first Slip It Simple sock, using Undercover Otter Squirm 4ply
A Purl Soho Pocketful of Posy brioche blanket knit in cascade 220 worsted yarn in cabernet, light pink, hot pink, blue quartz heather, gold, and butter with the colour natural as the main contrast colour. It is draped over a chair in front of bookshelves.
An in progress top down vest, with stripes of black, grey, then 1 strand of grey held together with 1 strand of white.
A small stack of books is on a coffee table: How to Live: A Life of Montaigne in one question and twenty attempts at an answer by Sarah Bakewell, The Parenthood Dilemma by Gina Rushton, and The Illegals by Shaun Walker. Next to the stack is a white and blue striped mug and in the foreground a bowl of chocolate coins and Dutch kruidnoten
My WIP which is the Purl Soho Pocketful of Posy brioche blanket which I'm knitting in Cascade 220 worsted yarn. The side on show is hot pink changing into baby blue.
The beginnings of the Purl Soho Pocketful of Posy brioche blanket, knit with Cascade 220 yarn. The colour at the top is Cabernet, the colour on the bottom Soft Pink.
A pair of kilt socks knit in New Lanark DK wool in Ecru, pattern is Patons UK kilt sock
An Ysolda Musselburgh hat knit in Ginger Twist Studio's Masham Mayhem yarn in the Voyager colourway
An in progress Musselburgh Hat (Ysolda Patterns) in Gingrr Twist studio Masham Mayhem 4ply yarn in the Voyager colourway, with my hand holding a mug of chai latte next to it
My in progress Patons Kilt Sock lies across my leg with my project bag in the top left corner. Yarn is New Lanark DK on ecru
A Musselburgh Hat by Ysolda patterns in Masham Mayhem by Ginger Twist (Voyager colourway), this time with less obvious ladders where the increases are!
A Musselburgh hat by Ysolda that has had all of the increase rounds done. Yarn is Ginger Twist Studio Masham Mayhem 4ply in the Voyager colourway
The current view of my dining table: a blue and white floral tea set next to a yarn bowl and above my in progress kilt sock (the Patons kilt sock in New Lanark DK ecru), all resting on an Indian green and orange embroidered tablecloth
Big Ben look resplendent in the morning September sun
The cuff of a kilt sock on DPNs on my lap. The pattern is Patons kilt sock and yarn is New Lanark DK in ecru
The Peace By Piece blanket designed by Needle and Feather with the border on knitting needles
A cream kilt sock on a leg. Patter. Is Patons Kilt sock and yarn is New Lanark Wool in DK
A hardback copy of All Consuming by Ruby Tandoh on a seagrass mat, next to a cappucino
A proof copy of The Ending Writes Itself by Evelyn Clarke lies open on a coffee shop table with a chair in the background
A pink post note on the desk saying "days since distribution disasters: 0"
A proof copy of Katabasis by R. F. Kuang held open on my lap with the pages towards my leg, as I'm sat on a wall on the beach
A proof copy of No Friend To This House by Natalie Haynes held by my hand over my lap on the bus, with my tote bag decorated with pins and badges in the background
An in progress kilt sock in DK New Lanark wool, with a cable rib cuff and garter rib sock body
The Virago edition of A Life Of One's Own by Marion Milner (published under the pseudonym Joanna Field) lies on a wooden table. At the top of the table is a flat white coffee on a red saucer and underneath that there is a very large chocolate chip cookie on a plate.
A coral shirt with a navy blue patch, attached with running stitches in unbleached cotton yarn
A stack of books on a cream mantelpiece, with a houseplant on the corner. The stack of books from top to bottom is: Hemlock and Silver by T Kingfisher (gifted by Pan Macmillan) A Life of One's Own by Marion Milner Dragonborn by Struan Murray (gifted by Puffin Books) The Book of Doors by Gareth Brown Ingrained by Callum Robinson The Midnight Shift by Cheon Seon-Ram (gifted by Bloomsbury) Modern Divination by Isa Agajanian The Illegals by Shaun Walker (gifted by Profile Books)
A hand holding the cable border of the beginnings of a kilt sock. Yarn is cream New Lanark DK
One half of the Peace by Piece blanket by Pattern Knits, made up of individual colourwork squares crocheted together. On a grey carpet background.
My left hand holds up a copy of The Illegals: Russia's Most Audacious Spies and the Plot to Infiltrate the West by Shaun Walker in front of my bookshelves. There is a letter poking out of the top of the book which was sent with the gifted package
The beginnings of a sock on double pointed needles, leading back to a ball of New Lanark DK shade Ecru being held in a wooden yarn bowl. All on a wooden table.
My left hand holds a copy of Clara Törnvall's The Autists in front of my lap, with a shadow cast over the cover
The cover of Not Safe For Work by Nisha J Tuli on a wooden desk, with a green chair on the corner and a rug in the background
A proof copy of Human Rites by Juno Dawson with the wording "There'll Be The Devil To Pay" on the cover, held by my hand on my lap on the beach
A copy of The Odyssey translated by Emily Wilson being held up by my hand
A nonfiction bay of books at a train station WHSmiths, with a variety of business books and 'airport nonfiction'
A hand holding a copy of Careless People by Sarah Wynn-Williams
A stack of books about books on a wood table: - Mijn geliefde boekhandel by Petra Hartlieb - A Bookshop Of One's Own by Jane Cholmeley - Ex Libris by Michiko Kakutani - The Novel Cure by Ella Berthoud and Susan Elderkin - The Business of Books by André Schiffrin - In Praise of Good Bookstores by Jeff Deutsch - The Art of Libromancy by Josh Cook - The Bookshop Book by Jen Campbell - Diary of a Tuscan Bookshop by Alba Donati - Shelf Life by Michael Robb
An in-progress checkered square with pink and grey yarn, on a rug with a blue and white porcelain teapot and cup of tea
The Women's Prize for Non-Fiction 2025 longlisted books spine out in a row: Autocracy, Inc by Anne Applebaum, Embers of the Hands BT Eleanor Barraclough, The Eagle and the Hart by Helen Castor, A Thousand Threads by Neneh Cherry, The Story of a Heart by Rachel Clarke, Raising Hare by Chloe Dalton, Ootlin by Jenni Fagan, Why Fish Don't Exist by Lulu Miller, Agent Zo by Clare Mulley, By the Fire We Carry by Rebecca Nagle, Wild Thing by Sue Prideaux, What the Wild Sea Can Be by Helen Scales, The Peepshow by Kate Summerscale, Sister in Law by Harriet Wistrich, Tracker by Alexis Wright, and Private Revolutions by Yuan Yang
My first tarot deck, Everyday Tarot, on a shelf in front of my unread books shelf, and next to my blue handmade mug
In the middle of a gallery wall there is a white mounted shelf. 3 books stand upright on it: Skandar and the Skeleton Curse by A F Steadman (a green hardback), Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V E Schwab (a Midnight blue proof copy) and The Favourites by Layne Fargo (also a paperback proof). Next to the books there is a snake plant in a jute pot. In the top left corner of the photo there is another floating shelf with a pothos plant on it and a small woodcarved bird in a terracotta pot. In the frames on the wall, starting from the top and going clockwise: silk paper postcards bought in Samarkand, Uzbekistan; a newspaper illustration of a Dutch house celebrating Dutch literature; a print of hot air balloons in Cappadochia, Turkey; a slither of more Samarkand paper
A proof copy of The Favourites by Layne Fargo is on top of a proof of Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V E Schwab, both on a small round engraved wooden table. Above the books is a metallic French press and next to them a blue mug of coffee. All of this against the backdrop of an orange striped kilim
My hand holds a hardback library copy of A Bookshop of One's Own by Jane Cholmeley in the foreground, whilst on the small wood table behind a proof copy of Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V E Schwab lies next to a cup of coffee
A flatly of my favourite nonfiction picks: - How To Resist Amazon and Why by Danng Caine - Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism by Kristen Ghodsee - Maybe You Should Talk to Someone by Lori Gottlieb - Freedom Is A Constant Struggle by Angela Y Davis - A Memoir of My Former Self by Hilary Mantel - Conversations on Love by Natasha Lunn - Porn: An Oral History by Polly Barton
A copy of The Bookshop Woman by Nanako Hanada stands on a round engraved wood table, with bookshelves as the backdrop and a yellow upholstered chair in the background
A copy of Enter Ghost by Isabella Hammad splayed open, pages down, on my crossed legs
8 knitted colourwork squares in various patterns using navy blue, grey, white, and yellow yarn on a grey carpet
A copy of the Penguin English Library paperback of Persuasion by Jane Austen held up in front of a Christmas tree
A library copy of Neverland by Vanessa Kisuule next to a flat white in a blue coffee cup on a wooden table
My literal towering TBR on one shelf; 3 hardbacks upright followed by two towers
The book cover of A Merry Little Meet Cute by Julie Murphy and Sierra Simone
A Kobo ereader showing the black and white cover of Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton next to a flat white coffee, on a brown wooden table
The StoryGraph November reading wrap up slide one, showing stats of books read (12), number of pages read (3,627) and the average star rating (3.7). My highest rated reads were The Notebook by Roland Allen (5 stars), A Year at the Chateau by Dick and Angel Strawbridge (5 stars) and Peril at End House by Agatha Christie (4.5 stars). Average book length was 288 pages and it took me on average 8 days to finish a book. At the bottom of the page is a chart showing how much I read per day.
A half-knit hot water bottle cover in pink chunky wool with grey merino wool colourwork
A white painted bookcase filled with books. On the top shelf there is an elephant ornament in the middle with one houseplant either side. On the floor is a dark wood magazine stand and to the right of the bookcase is a wooden upholstered chair with a large woven cushion on it
A fair isle-style knitted jumper with a woven patch in the middle
A fair isle style knitted jumper in burgundy, dark teal, pinks and blues with a hole in the middle
A hand holding a Kobo showing the book cover for Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton