Slow times in the accessions department of late—the institution is working on a number of large projects which are constraining budgets both fiduciary and temporal—but here’s a handful of new acquisitions. Frankfurt’s On Bullshit. One might argue that the time to acquire this book was immediately after its publication; certainly, the years since have only…

The department picked up DeLillo’s Underworld while wandering around the innegårdar of Malmö last weekend; Öppna Möllan is a sort of rudderless quasi-festival held at the start of every autumn, in which residents of the collective blocks of downtown Malmö open up their courtyards to passers-by and have a loppis (or yard-sale) to clear out…

A gift, mailed from Finland by an old colleague and ally of the institution, accompanied by a note saying “I wasn’t enjoying this, but I think it’s your sort of thing”. Time alone will prove whether they’re right—but they’ve been right a few times before.

This appears to be getting a good reception—for a book billed as technothriller to be reviewed positively at Teh Graun, by no less a discerning gourmand than Adam Roberts, is quite the badge of distinction. But the institution has been meaning to get to MacDonald’s other writings for some time, which has prompted the department…