Category Archives: Books

Bookstore Tourism Philadelphia

Posted on October 27, 2020 by Brian D. Butler

It took a big leap of faith for the New York City bookshop Shakespeare & Co to open a branch in the high rent Philadelphia Center City Rittenhouse Square neighborhood two years ago. Somehow they’ve managed to hang on during these crazy … Continue reading →

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Welcome to Planet Word

Posted on October 26, 2020 by Brian D. Butler

Last week a long-awaited new museum opened in Washington, D.C. that will be a must-see destination for readers and language lovers. Planet Word is promoted as “a revolutionary museum dedicated to the power, beauty, and fun of language and to … Continue reading →

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Into the Haunted Looking Glass

Posted on October 25, 2020 by Brian D. Butler

The Haunted Looking Glass is the late Edward Gorey’s selection of his favorite tales of ghosts, ghouls, and grisly goings-on. It includes stories by Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins, M. R. James, W. W. Jacobs, and L. P. Hartley, among other masters … Continue reading →

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Writers Not Writing

Posted on October 23, 2020 by Brian D. Butler

 

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Climactic Moments in Literature

Posted on October 22, 2020 by Brian D. Butler

©Kate Gavino

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Modern and Vintage too

Posted on October 21, 2020 by Brian D. Butler

If you have ever spent any time browsing secondhand bookstores or used book markets, it’s quite likely that you have run across many editions from the old Modern Library series. Founded in 1917, the Modern Library was eventually subsumed by … Continue reading →

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Tales for the Season

Posted on October 19, 2020 by Brian D. Butler

Illustrations from Tales of Edgar Allan Poe. With an Introduction By Hervey Allen and Wood Engravings By Fritz Eichenberg. New York: Random House, 1944.

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Three-Paragraph Problem

Posted on October 18, 2020 by Brian D. Butler

“A Problem” by Jorge Luis Borges Translated by Andrew Hurley Let us imagine that a piece of paper with a text in Arabic on it is discovered in Toledo, and that paleographers declare the text to have been written by … Continue reading →

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Born to Read

Posted on October 17, 2020 by Brian D. Butler

Tonight, you can celebrate the poetic genius of Bruce Springsteen and  also support the Book Industry Charitable Foundation by attending a the Crowdcast event “Born to Read–Booksellers Talk Bruce Springsteen. Through five decades, Springsteen has been as a cultural touchstone … Continue reading →

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It is a river, this language

Posted on October 16, 2020 by Brian D. Butler

I can recall my amazement in reading Chaucer in high school English and marveling at the extent that the English language had changed over time. The short video below by A.Z. Foreman is an enlightening marvelous journey through thirteen centuries … Continue reading →

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