Category Archives: Asia

Mapping Meaningful Travel

Posted on October 9, 2024 by Brian D. Butler

 Tourism Cares, a leading non-profit dedicated to advancing sustainability within the tourism industry, announce the launch of its “Get on the Map” campaign, a month-long initiative running from October 1 through October  31, 2024. The campaign is designed to inspire … Continue reading →

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Waving, not drowning

Posted on September 10, 2024 by Brian D. Butler

I have had the opportunity to see original prints of Katsushika Hokusai’s iconic work The Great Wave Off Kanagawa at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. Now, the Art Institute of Chicago, which … Continue reading →

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Who doesn’t love a good Dorling Cartogram

Posted on August 31, 2024 by Brian D. Butler

World Population Flags is a Dorling cartogram in which country flags are sized by population. The cartogram is used to visualize where people live around the world and the relative size of each country’s population. Take for a spin. A … Continue reading →

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Are you guilty of tsundoku

Posted on July 14, 2024 by Brian D. Butler

The Japanese word tsundoku means buying books and letting them pile up unread. The word dates back to the very beginning of modern Japan, the Meiji era (1868–1912) and has its origins in a pun. Tsundoku, which literally means reading pile, is … Continue reading →

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The infinite reading list

Posted on May 31, 2024 by Brian D. Butler

 

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Murakami in the Machine or Way back Wednesday

Posted on May 29, 2024 by Brian D. Butler

In the past we’ve covered lots of book vending machine stories, but this one is surreal. The Muzu publishing house in Poland created three vending machines to dispense Polish translations of Haruki Murakami’s newest novel, Colourless Tsukuru Tazaki and the Year of … Continue reading →

Posted in Asia, Books, Europe, Writing | Tagged , , | 5 Comments

Cover Art

Posted on May 22, 2024 by Brian D. Butler

One of the privileges in collecting and selling antiquarian books is discovering the absolutely wonderful book cover art and design from the 19th and early 20th centuries. Although my specialty has always been books on travel, geography, and history, I … Continue reading →

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アリスに聞いてみよう

Posted on May 16, 2024 by Brian D. Butler

In our never ending quest to bring you all known editions of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland here’s アリスに聞いてみよう. Here’s  Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, a Japanese edition illustrated by Maki Sasaki / text in Japanese, 205-page hardback with jacket, 5.25 … Continue reading →

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If you’re happy and you know it…

Posted on May 14, 2024 by Brian D. Butler

As usual, Finland, Denmark, Iceland, Sweden top the country ranking in the annual World Happiness Report .  However, seeing Israel at #5 , just above the Netherlands and Norway, is quite a surprise. The map above also does something extra: … Continue reading →

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Speaking Of

Posted on April 12, 2024 by Brian D. Butler

 

Posted in Asia, Europe, USA, Writing | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments