Category Archives: Books

Not Dracula

Posted on October 25, 2021 by Brian D. Butler

I am embarrassed to admit that I never read this Bram Stoker fantasy/horror collection. Under the Sunset is a collection of short stories by Bram Stoker (the author of Dracula), first published in 1881. It was illustrated by W. V. Cockburn and William FitzGerald. The stories … Continue reading →

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Don’t Judge This Book By Its Covers

Posted on October 22, 2021 by Brian D. Butler

I’ve been looking forward to Dave Eggers’ follow-up to his best-selling tech novel The Circle and now its been released with an added surprise. His new book , The Every , is a sequel to his previous novel which skewered … Continue reading →

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Bibliotherapy, Journaling, and Some Bloodletting

Posted on October 21, 2021 by Brian D. Butler

Early in the 17th century,Oxford University scholar Robert Burton published what is now considered to be the first English language self-help manual, The Anatomy of Melancholy. The book offers Burton’s ideas on the nature and symptoms of melancholy or depression, … Continue reading →

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Graphic Lessons on the Twentieth Century

Posted on October 20, 2021 by Brian D. Butler

When Dr. Timothy Snyder’s powerful book  On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century was published in 2017, I was a vocal evangelist for the book and its message. Now, the Yale history professor has released an updated and illustrated … Continue reading →

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The Great American Novel ?

Posted on October 19, 2021 by Brian D. Butler

During this week in 1851, Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick was first published as The Whale in three volumes by Richard Bentley in London. Almost one month later in November, the first American edition was published in New York by Harper & Brothers. Although many think of … Continue reading →

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A Perfect Time To Visit The Haunted Bookshop

Posted on October 18, 2021 by Brian D. Butler

  What better time of the year to visited The Haunted Bookshop than at the Halloween season. Located in Cambridge, England and fittingly found down a dark, spooky alleyway, the diminutive bookstore more than lives up to its name. Packed … Continue reading →

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A Little Treasure (Island)

Posted on October 15, 2021 by Brian D. Butler

One of the very first “grown-up” books that I read as a child was a fabulous edition of Robert Louis Stevenson’s novel Treasure Island. I can’t be certain, but I believe that it was a well-worn copy with wonderful illustrations by … Continue reading →

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I would prefer not to

Posted on October 14, 2021 by Brian D. Butler

Writer Clive Thompson has created and shared a new online tool allows you to visualize any piece of writing by stripping away everything but its punctuation. His free web tool—”just the punctuation”—allows you can paste in any piece of text … Continue reading →

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Glooskap the Divinity

Posted on October 13, 2021 by Brian D. Butler

There are some of the great illustrations to be found in The Algonquin Legends of New England (1884). The collection of Algonquin folk tales presented in the book is a result of the collecting efforts of folklorist Charles G. Leland … Continue reading →

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Small is beautiful (bookshop version)

Posted on October 12, 2021 by Brian D. Butler

I’ve visited bookstores all over the world, including some really, really small shops. Probably the tiniest of all was Twizel Bookshop in the little New Zealand mountain town of the same name. Here in North America, the cozy Poet’s Corner … Continue reading →

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