Category Archives: Books

Poems on Various Subjects

Posted on September 1, 2024 by Brian D. Butler

On September 1, 1773, Phillis Wheatley’s Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral was published in London, England. Wheatley’s collection was the first volume of poetry by an African-American poet to be published. Regarded as a prodigy by her contemporaries, Wheatley was approximately … Continue reading →

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Managing Your Book Addiction

Posted on August 31, 2024 by Brian D. Butler

 

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Monday, Monday, can’t trust that day

Posted on August 26, 2024 by Brian D. Butler

, In 1974, Saturday Review magazine asked some of the world’s leading thinkers (Isaac Asimov, Jacques Cousteau, Andrei Sakharov, etc.) what the world of 2024 would look like. Here’s what they got right (internet) and wrong (factories on the Moon) … Continue reading →

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Heaven’s Gate

Posted on August 25, 2024 by Brian D. Butler

“A Society of Scoundrels” by Franz Kafka Translated by Michael Hofmann There was once a society of scoundrels, or rather not scoundrels per se, just ordinary, average people. They always stuck together. When one of them had perpetrated some rascally … Continue reading →

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Bibliolyte, destroyer of books

Posted on August 24, 2024 by Brian D. Butler

In The Book Hunter (1863), John Hill Burton identifies five types of “persons who meddle with books”: “A bibliognoste, from the Greek, is one knowing in title-pages and colophons, and in editions; the place and year when printed; the presses whence issued; … Continue reading →

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It was a dark and stormy night

Posted on August 23, 2024 by Brian D. Butler

“She had a body that reached out and slapped my face like a five-pound ham-hock tossed from a speeding truck.” 2024 Grand Prize Winner Founded in 1982 at San Jose State University in California, the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest challenges entrants … Continue reading →

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Tension for Tears

Posted on August 22, 2024 by Brian D. Butler

As I have previously mentioned, the novels and short stories of Ray Bradbury played an important role in my early love of reading. I recently ran across this marvelous brief video of Bradbury from fifty years ago discussing the importance … Continue reading →

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Summer Reads

Posted on August 20, 2024 by Brian D. Butler

It has become an annual tradition each summer for former President Barack Obama to share his summer reading list on social media. As usual, the list showcases his mix of fiction and nonfiction, and it shows off an interest in … Continue reading →

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Through Thick and Thin

Posted on August 19, 2024 by Brian D. Butler

I don’t think that I’ve read Chaucer since high school, but I was still fascinated when I ran across an article on the many commonly used English phrases that he  coined (or popularized) a lot of phrases that we still … Continue reading →

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Respect the law of consequences

Posted on August 18, 2024 by Brian D. Butler

Those of you who stop by TBTP on a regular basis know that I am an evangelist for the work of Octavia E. Butler . The first widely read Black science fiction author and Afro-Futurist pioneer was also a perspicacious … Continue reading →

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