Author Archives: Brian D. Butler

Book Club for the People

This autumn, the highly respected television network C-SPAN is launching America’s Book Club, a weekly primetime TV series hosted by David M. Rubenstein. C-SPAN will tape America’s Book Club before live audiences at major public libraries and cultural landmarks, including the Library of … Continue reading

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No one should be writing poetry In times like these

HAZARD RESPONSE Tom Clark As in that grey exurban wasteland in Gatsby When the white sky darkens over the city Of ashes, far from the once happy valley, This daze spreads across the blank faces Of the inhabitants, suddenly deprived Of … Continue reading

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What makes a book a book

What makes a book a book? Is it just anything that stores and communicates information? Or does it have to do with paper, binding, font, ink, its weight in your hands, the smell of the pages? To answer these questions, … Continue reading

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Inspired by Miyazaki

In case you were wondering, yes I’m still captivated by all things Japan. The marvelously atmospheric video below was inspired by Hayao Miyazaki’s beloved film Princess Mononoke. Last year, director Steve Atkins took a hike through Yakushima’s forest, which is known … Continue reading

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More words for booklovers

A big tip of the hat to TBTP subscriber Joe Coffee (not their real name) who sent this list of book and reading related terms to follow-up the recent post titled “Destroyer of Books”. My fav comes from the late, … Continue reading

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There is only one way to read

There is only one way to read, which is to browse in libraries and bookshops, picking up books that attract you, reading only those, dropping them when they bore you, skipping the parts that drag — and never, never reading … Continue reading

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Or so the story goes.

When the light goes out, and the book is set down by the bedside, it all comes flooding in: the story you are reading; the story of the day; the understanding that it is a story, the day now past, … Continue reading

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East of the Sun and West of the Moon

“You have traveled far, but the hardest part of a journey is always the next step.” ― Jackie Morris I grew up reading battered old copies of the fabulous early twentieth century collections of children’s stories, some of my flea market … Continue reading

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How it’s done

The 90-minute video below demonstrates the making of a batch of woodblock prints “from blank paper to finished print” from the printer’s POV. It is a fascinating look at the complex process. In the video below, Tokyo-based printmaker Dave Bull … Continue reading

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why fiction fascinates us so

Our perceptual relationship with the world works because we trust prior stories. We could not fully perceive a tree if we did not know (because others have told us) that it is the product of a long growth process and … Continue reading

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