Category Archives: Books

Frankenstein Was a Vegetarian

Posted on November 9, 2022 by Brian D. Butler

A six-book shortlist has been released for the Bookseller Diagram Prize for the Oddest Book Title of the Year. The award was conceived in 1978 by Trevor Bounford and Bruce Robertson, co-founders of publishing solutions firm the Diagram Group, as a way … Continue reading →

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When the knock comes, it will be long ago.

Posted on November 8, 2022 by Brian D. Butler

THE FALL OF VARIA D. Nurkse The tanks from the Past rolled in this morning. Our neighbors crowded the curbs to cheer though only yesterday, they were snitching: A has prior tendencies, B has backward dreams… Already the old flag … Continue reading →

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History Repeats Itself

Posted on November 7, 2022 by Brian D. Butler

h/t Tom Gauld

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when the light finally came

Posted on November 6, 2022 by Brian D. Butler

Ada Limón’s poem “We Are Surprised”— Now, we take the moon into the middle of our brains so we look like roadside stray cats with bright flashlight-white eyes in our faces, but no real ideas of when or where to … Continue reading →

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For the sake of a single poem, you must see many cities

Posted on November 2, 2022 by Brian D. Butler

Rainer Maria Rilke // “Ah, poems amount to so little when you write them too early in your life. You ought to wait and gather sense and sweetness for a whole lifetime, and a long one if possible, and then, … Continue reading →

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Sandwich of Horror

Posted on October 31, 2022 by Brian D. Butler

NB: If the H.P. Lovecraft video fails to launch please click here .  

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Halloween Horror

Posted on October 29, 2022 by Brian D. Butler

 

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Americas’ Oldest Surviving Book

Posted on October 27, 2022 by Brian D. Butler

For the first time in more than 50 years Los Angeles’s J. Paul Getty Museum is displaying ten of the remaining pages from Códice Maya de México, the oldest surviving book of the Americas. Dating to circa 1100 CE, the Mayan Codex … Continue reading →

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nostalgie de la bibliothèque

Posted on October 26, 2022 by Brian D. Butler

While checking out book blogs I stumbled on a reference to “Spooks and Spirits and Shadowy Shapes” , featuring wonderfully atmospheric, period illustrations by Robert L. Doremus. Certainly not the most interesting Halloween reading, but personally significant as I remember … Continue reading →

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to keep my own heart free of hatred and despair

Posted on October 25, 2022 by Brian D. Butler

It began to seem that one would have to hold in the mind forever two ideas which seemed to be in opposition. The first idea was acceptance, the acceptance, totally without rancor, of life as it is, and men as … Continue reading →

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