Author Archives: Brian D. Butler

Bookstore Taboo

Posted on October 15, 2017 by Brian D. Butler

Tabook is an amusing short film that takes on the silliness of cultural taboos. In Amsterdam-based director Dario van Vree’s animated short a young woman endures the pitfalls of book browsing in a puritanical society. The cheeky film was created with … Continue reading →

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Libraries On Wheels

Posted on October 14, 2017 by Brian D. Butler

Rural communities in Zimbabwe seldom have their own libraries, so in 1995 educator Obadiah Mayo founded the Rural Libraries & Resources Development Programme to bring books to the countryside. Today, his organization has fifteen donkey-powered mobile library carts that each … Continue reading →

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Monsters In Philadelphia

Posted on October 13, 2017 by Brian D. Butler

With Frankenstein and Dracula, Mary Shelley and Bram Stoker created two of history’s most memorable monsters. Two hundred years after Frankenstein was published, pages from Mary Shelley’s manuscript will make their only appearance in the United States, to be displayed for the first … Continue reading →

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Isn’t It Romantic

Posted on October 12, 2017 by Brian D. Butler

England’s famed Lake District has recently been recognized by UNESCO as a World Cultural Heritage region, but it has long attracted literary tourists and nature lovers. The Craig Manor Hotel on beautiful Lake Windermere has produced the charming infographic below … Continue reading →

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Kafka Meets The Matrix

Posted on October 11, 2017 by Brian D. Butler

Mexican writer/director Pablo Calvillo’s animated short film Inksect is an intense Kafkaesque vision of a dystopian future where books are burned. Still, there’s some hope for bibliophiles in this surreal world captured in an engaging and original animation style. Be sure … Continue reading →

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This Is Real Street Art

Posted on October 10, 2017 by Brian D. Butler

Isafjördur is a small city in the extreme northwest corner of Iceland. It’s a remote place with a population of just 2,600 year-round residents, but like the rest of the country it has been experiencing a tourism boom. And with … Continue reading →

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Sleep Is For The Weak

Posted on October 9, 2017 by Brian D. Butler

Over the years I’ve tried ever possible gimmick to manage to get some sleep while flying. As a life-long insomniac, air travel usually means a sleep-less night, or at best fitful tossing, turning and squirming in an uncomfortable seat. Even … Continue reading →

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Not Exactly True

Posted on October 8, 2017 by Brian D. Butler
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Switzerland: Another Reason To Visit

Posted on October 7, 2017 by Brian D. Butler

Just in case you needed another good reason to consider a trip to Switzerland, on October 21st the Camille Bloch chocolate company will open its new chocolate museum and tasting center near the firm’s headquarters in the village of Courtelay. … Continue reading →

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A Village After Dark

Posted on October 6, 2017 by Brian D. Butler

This year’s Nobel prize for literature was announced yesterday. I don’t usually pay much attention to these types of awards, but I really thought that this would be Margaret Atwood’s year. Still, even though I was surprised by the selection … Continue reading →

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