Dan

𝖂𝖊𝖑𝖑 𝕸𝖊𝖙 Friends, Enemies, Lovers, Rivals, Harfoots, Fallowhides and Stoors, it's that time of year again when my dear friend @kieranjanebooks and the equally gorgeous @acornerturned ask me to introduce myself like a hobbit in aid of #alongexpectedhobbitday so, in the words of Treebeard, my name is growing all the time, and i've lived a very long, long time; so my name is like a story. real names tell you the story of things they belong to in my language, but it takes a very long time to say anything in it, because we do not say anything in it, unless it is worth taking a long time to say. this is me: • i live in the uk • i am like the world's oldest millennial i think • single dad, desk slave, cat owner, seditious weirdo • feminism and gender studies since 1999 • Wheel of Time scholar • The Locked Tomb simp • one thing about me, is that i am yearning • but in a funny way • sometimes i write stuff • i'm sorry about the photograpy • reading is political • billionaires shouldn't exist • borders are imaginary lines drawn by weak-hearted men • free palestine. free sudan. free congo • isnotreal and it shouldn't exist • homophobes, transphobes, terfs and swerfs can all get f***ed • diversity is sacred • i don't know half of you half as well as i should like • everything is political, actually • no, i still won't shut up • if you feel like i am doing it wrong, please come and talk to me • with hope or without it, love is the only way the world is changing. i feel it in the water, i feel it in the earth, and i smell it in the air. f*ck the patriarchy ✌️❤️ 🇵🇸 dan

𝖀𝖓𝖋𝖔𝖗𝖙𝖚𝖓𝖆𝖙𝖊𝖑𝖞 𝕴 𝕯𝖔 𝕷𝖔𝖛𝖊... you. four (4) days to post a #bookstackforsudan if you haven't already done so. just post a 🇸🇩-coloured stack, and use the hashtag, and tag me and @kieranjanebooks and we will give $2 to the Sudanese American Physicians Association. do ittttt. f*ck the patriarchy, ✌️❤️ 🇸🇩

2025 𝖋𝖆𝖛𝖔𝖚𝖗𝖎𝖙𝖊𝖘 no snow bc global warming, idk 🤷‍♂️😢 but here - here! a post! - here in no particular order are my favourite reads from 2025: • The Memoir of Johnny Daywalker by Meghan Davis: Meghan beat me up and left me by wondering at the beauty of impermanence. and made me like it. again. • Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir: the sci-fi mystery that dares to ask, what would you do for your god? is she my goth girlfriend or am I just a necrophiliac? where the hell is [redacted]? what book did i actually read before? and does anybody know what the literal f*ck is going on? • Nona the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir: aka The Curious Incident of the Corpse in the Morning, aka Extremely Dead and Incredibly Gay, aka Are You There, God? It's Me, Possibly • This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal el-Mohtar and Max Gladstone: sprawling, fascinating, endlessly inventive, blisteringly fast-paced, heartbreakingly fleeting, appallingly hopeful, tiny and infinite, both at once. shut up, you are. • I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman: was so brutally, devastatingly full of hope. i'm gonna stop staring at the wall any time now, i swear. • The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty: it's a yarn. it's a swashbuckler. it's a feminist, socialist, gender-nonconforming riot. there should be more books like this. • Sunburn by Chloe Michelle Howarth: not sure i've ever read a novel that was biting its bottom lip quite so relentlessly. this book left little wet patches all over my house? • Doppelganger by Naomi Klein: bro, i fcking dare you to read this book and go look at yourself in the mirror. say your own name three times, bro. wishing a kinder, safer and more just 2026 to all those that need it most. f*ck the patriarchy, ✌️❤️ 🇵🇸 dan

#hopeisaverb "𝘞𝘦 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘭𝘸𝘢𝘺𝘴 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘧𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘯 𝘸𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘴𝘩 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘦, 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘸𝘦 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘢𝘭𝘸𝘢𝘺𝘴 𝘣𝘦 𝘣𝘳𝘢𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘯 𝘸𝘦 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘵." - Robert Jordan, Lord of Chaos it is impossible to describe without major spoilers all of the ways in which this series brings me hope. but perhaps it is that, for a series which is so obsessed with the chosen one trope, the wheel of time constantly reminds us that, you absolutely cannot save the world alone. There can be no health in us, nor any good thing grow, for the land is one with the Dragon Reborn, and he is one with the land. As the plow breaks the earth shall he break the lives of men, and all that was shall be consumed in the fire of his eyes. The trumpets of war shall sound at his footsteps, the ravens feed at his voice, and he shall wear a crown of swords. With his coming are the dread fires born again. The hills burn, and the land turns sere. The tides of men run out, and the hours dwindle. The wall is pierced, and the veil of parting raised. For he shall come like the breaking dawn, and shatter the world again with his coming, and make it anew. Let tears flow, O ye people of the world. Weep for your salvation. the chaos of our times might feel like the end of days, my friends. but it is also a beginning. a re-read is gathering like a storm upon my horizon. what books bring you hope? my lovely friend @kieranjanebooks and i are running our #hopeisaverb campaign, and we would love to hear about the books that are a light in the darkness to you. we hope that we can build a little awareness and community, and maybe even some precious funds for some of our incredible causes (find them in our bios!). and - and! - there are some amazing prizes to be won. please check it out. f*ck the patriarchy ✌️❤️ 🇵🇸 dan & kieran

#HopeIsAVerb - NEW BOOKS FOR A CAUSE HopeIsAVerb is a new fundraising campaign started by @kieranjanebooks and @dan.devours.words ! All donations will be donation-matched by Kieran and Dan up to the first $1,500. So what are you waiting for? Matched donation funds will be distributed evenly across all listed causes. Here are more details from their post: Incredible artistic individuals from across bookstagram and beyond have come together to create and donate unique giveaway prizes. Every week for as long as they have prizes to give, they will pick one name at random from their #hopeisaverb tombola, and the lucky winner will receive one of the amazing prizes in their post along with a $25 book token. How to enter: 1. Make any post you like, featuring any book or stack of books that give you hope. Use the hashtag #hopeisaverb and tag @dan.devours.words & @kieranjanebooks - 1 ticket 2. Donate to any of the #hopeisaverb causes linked in bios of @dan.devours.words & @kieranianebooks . Send a confirmation screenshot to @dan.devours.words - 2 tickets per $5 donated Will tag a few people to to encourage to join in 🥹❤️‍🔥

Some months after turning 2, Young Jedi started losing language. Words he’d had in his repertoire just… vanished. It was devastating, for him, for us, and I’d never felt so helpless as a parent, watching him struggle to communicate and the resulting anger and frustration when he couldn’t. My formerly joyful boy was fading before my eyes, and I didn’t know what to do. But I thought I knew why. (I was right.) One of the activities we used to do then that calmed us both and became a moment for bonding was cuddle on the couch and watch Planet Earth, as narrated by the inimitable Sir David Attenborough. Young Jedi has always loved nature, and he was fascinated by Planet Earth - and by Sir David’s voice. Some of the first words he started using again regularly were because of Sir David’s narration. About a year later, Young Jedi was officially diagnosed as autistic. (As am I, as is Halfling.) Young Jedi is 8 now. He makes up the most incredible stories, narrates his own nature documentaries, and can now read this book about his hero David Attenborough to me all on his own. He still loves nature and Sir David, and I will be forever grateful to the man who has given hope to so many - humans and creatures alike - to our planet, and to Young Jedi in particular. My dear friend @dan.devours.words and I are running a campaign called #HopeisaVerb (you might’ve heard of it 😉) that we launched on Sir David’s 100th birthday (unintended, but I can’t think of a better coincidence). We’re collaborating with incredible artists & creatives across bookstagram and beyond to raise money for causes spanning our planet, her creatures, and humanity. We invite you to share books that bring you hope, check out the causes, share the campaign, maybe donate a handcrafted item or a few dollars/euros/what have you. A few slides are included above, but please check the pinned post on either of our profiles for full details. Wild Places is one of the books that brings my family hope. Dan and I will be sharing many more books in the coming weeks, and we look forward to seeing yours. Do good. Get good. Grow hope. Kieran & Dan ❦

Friends, we know the world feels heavy right now. So swollen with lies, so laden with hate. It feels like you could never move it. Not even a little. But we believe this community can make a difference. We’ve seen it happen. Together, we can move the world, bit by bit. And we know that tiny difference means all the world to somebody. Incredible artists and creators from across the bookstagram community and beyond have come together to create and donate unique giveaway prizes. Every week for as long as we have prizes to give away, we’ll pick one name at random from our #hopeisaverb tombola, and the lucky winner will receive one of these amazing prizes and a $25 book token. Week One’s prize will be a gorgeous watermelon book-purse handmade by the amazing @angel_ontheother , together with one of our super cute handmade hope-is-a-verb bracelets by @apaperhaven and a $25 book voucher to the online bookstore of your choice. Drawing will take place Saturday 16th May and winner will be announced shortly after. And don’t worry if you don’t win, your ticket/s stay in the tombola for the next week and so on, for as long as the giveaway runs. We’ve called this campaign #hopeisaverb, so here’s the bit where you do something. To get into that tombola: 1. Make any post you like, featuring any book or stack of books that give you hope. Use the hashtag #hopeisaverb and tag @dan.devours.words & @kieranjanebooks - 1 ticket 2. Donate to any of the #hopeisaverb causes linked in bios of @dan.devours.words & @kieranjanebooks . Send a confirmation screenshot to @dan.devours.words - 2 tickets per $5 donated ALSO! - all donations will be donation-matched by Kieran and Dan up to the first $1,500. So what are you waiting for? [matched donation funds will be distributed evenly across all listed causes] (continued)

𝖒𝖆𝖞 𝖙𝖍𝖊 4𝖙𝖍 𝖇𝖊 𝖜𝖎𝖙𝖍 𝖞𝖔𝖚 happy star wars day! and happy beltaine! this is your reminder that a very small number of people on this planet have the power to end hunger, end homelessness, end war and poverty, and barely even notice the hole in their wallets. and yet they wake up every day and instead choose instead to extract more wealth from the rest of us. they are liars, cowards, murderers, profiteers, racists, rapists and weak-hearted men and they control almost every major media outlet, politician and institution in the world. and they don't do that for the love of it, but because they know that the second we get done fighting and fucking, we are coming for them. anyway, somebody left these quotes lying around. f*ck the patriarchy, ✌️❤️ 🇵🇸 dan

𝖒𝖊𝖘𝖘𝖞 𝖒𝖔𝖓𝖉𝖆𝖞 please don't interrupt me again unless he's actually dead. or all of them, actually. or better still, unless they're all in the hague, on trial. or in my basement, tied to a chair. i want to see their worlds turn to ashes when they realise what they are. i want to see the guilt and the shame in their eyes. bc in my body i know: we were all born of love, all just a set of tiny little bones, built of curiosity, birthed in hope. so in my heart, they have to know, deep down, about the harm they do. but they have built up such vast walls to distance themselves from it, such a grand story to tell about themselves. such a precious machine, with which to launder their reality. no wonder they're always the victim. their houses stand upon foundations of myth. with every broken body buried, with every tiny, tortured limb laid into the ground, further cracks appear. and it's not just a belief, actually. i have evidence. i know they know. because those walls i imagine are the same walls i build. the same stories i tell myself every time i eat meat, or work my corporate job, or give up and order from amazon. every time i pay my taxes, or *don't* give money to the homeless person on the street. as much as i'd like to think of this as 'us' and 'them', we are all part of the machine. it's only ever 'us' really, isn't it? all of us have done harm, and all of us have been harmed. and there's really no getting out of that basement. but i guess it's true that some people's stories are louder than mine. and maybe is that why i so badly want to see them down here, with me. [that's my secret: i'm always angry!] for i, too, might live in a dystopia, running on the blood of the dispossessed, but from where i am, i can at least hear the screams of the children. i can taste the ashes that line the fields outside. i can smell the corpses, crumbling in the foundations. so no, please don't interrupt me again. even if he is fcking dead, in fact. only turn the damn machine off, so we can all hear a little better. f*ck the patriarchy, ✌️❤️ 🇵🇸 dan

𝕮𝖑𝖊𝖔𝖕𝖆𝖙𝖗𝖆 by Saara el-Arifi oh Osiris, how i longed for an inundation! but you have sent me merely a drizzle. that startling prologue. this very intense person who is empress, goddess, land and people, reflecting not only upon her lifetime, but upon millennia of myth that had been built upon it. this very composed, strident woman who stops you in your tracks. no, she says. you have it all wrong. let me show you. mother. did anybody else wet themselves with glee? but sadly, whilst Cleopatra styles itself as a feminist retelling of a character who historians have maligned, the Cleo that we watch battling for the throne has none of the narrator's strength, fortitude, or wisdom. i personally found her agency to be paper-thin, with a fresh reason to do what she does upon the turn of every page, and no coherent goals, strategies or internal consistency. she never once successfully executes a thought, has her mind changed for her at every turn -too often, by men!- treats loyalties like conveniences, and is entirely reliant on the scantly-appreciated actions of her friends and lovers to pull her out of trouble. and when we do hear back from that narrator, the apparent cognitive dissonance has sadly rendered that incredibly strong, divine-feminine voice absurd. all these odd little asides about how courageous she was, and how Egypt prospered under her rule, start to sound like the demented complaints of a disembodied ghost who is clearly 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘵𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘵 𝘨𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘢𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘶𝘴. like ut-oh, undead grandma has awoken again, and she has notes. now, this is only my opinion and plenty of wonderful people loved this book. but for me, it promised ozymandias, king of kings, and it delivered carry on cleo. i am begging writers to please find themselves a proper editor who is really going to challenge them. f*ck the patriarchy, ✌️❤️ 🇵🇸 dan

To anyone in the world who still holds compassion, mercy, and humanity in their heart, I am reaching out with a desperate plea. My father is in urgent need of medical care, proper treatment, and basic nutrition, but the situation in Gaza has made even the most essential healthcare nearly impossible to access. There is a severe shortage of medical supplies, medications, and adequate facilities. I am asking for your help—any help—to protect my father’s life. We need support to secure the treatment he urgently requires, provide him with proper الغذاء (nutrition), and, if possible, assistance in helping him leave Gaza to receive the care he cannot find here. This is not just a request—it is a cry for help in a moment of fear and uncertainty. If you have the ability to assist, share, or support in any way, please do not hesitate. Your humanity could save a life. Thank you for listening, and for caring. #gofundme #gofundmedonations #linkinbio

*trigger warning for SA, 🍇* i was nineteen, i think, and it was the middle of the night, and S. was thrashing and screaming in her sleep, next to me. i can't recall what she was shouting. i'm not sure if it's just fallen away with the years, or maybe i never did make out the words, but i remember i got the lamp on, and when she saw me, she recoiled like i was a snake. she plastered herself to the far wall; a spider, set for crucifixion, breathing fast and ragged. her eyes were wide like i'd never seen them before, and i swear, she had no idea where she was. it took about an hour for my panicked ass to coax S. off of that wall, and i didn't know exactly what she thought was happening, but i knew the name for the trauma she was still surviving. about three months later, in a noisy student union club, she chose to sit me down and walk me through what had happened. that was the first story i heard, and a lifetime on, almost every woman i have known has indeed had a horrifying, repulsive, dehumanising story to tell. real ones will remember me talking about this before. but i woke up yesterday to 62 million fresh reasons to post about it again. what is wrong with these men? what do you mean, they didn't care? what do you mean, they don't tremble when they see the fear in their victim's eyes? what. do. you. mean. they didn't shudder with every hurt, every dread that she felt? what is wrong with them? what did we do to them?! what the fck do you mean??! men: your silence is shameful. i can appreciate you don't know what to say, but say it's awful. say it's cowardly, say it's weak-ass, broken behaviour. talk to your fcking boys. a lot of people reading this will be survivors. if that's you, know that i believe you, that you're resilient as fck, and you deserve a whole lot better. i know an absolute galaxy of women who have your back. this website is STILL UP AND NOT SHUT DOWN. meanwhile, 'the safety of women and girls' is being used as a stick to beat trans people and immigrants with. these mfkrs are not serious people. f*ck the patriarchy, ✌️❤️ 🇵🇸 dan