Category Archives: Europe

Thirty-six Views of the Eiffel Tower

Posted on January 20, 2026 by Brian D. Butler

Les Trente-Six Vues de la Tour Eiffel is a book that contains 36 lithographs by Henri Rivière printed in 1902. These lithographs reflect the social, political, and artistic changes that had occurred in Paris by the end of the nineteenth … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Asia, Books, Europe, Tourism, Travel Writing | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

Paris 1970

Posted on January 9, 2026 by Brian D. Butler

I recently learned about an amateur photography contest called ‘C’était Paris en 1970’ (‘This Was Paris in 1970’), whose roughly fourteen thousand participants produced seventy thousand black-and-white prints and thirty thousand color slides of the capital in the midst of … Continue reading →

Posted in Europe, Photography, Tourism | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Alice is back home

Posted on December 27, 2025 by Brian D. Butler

Christ Church Oxford and the Bodleian Libraries have become joint owners of an exceptionally rare first edition of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, the most important of only 22 known surviving copies of the first and subsequently withdrawn edition. The book … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Europe, History, Libraries, Museums, Writing | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Where in the world

Posted on December 13, 2025 by Brian D. Butler

I recently spotted the photo above on a random book blog. There was no attribution nor indication where or when the photograph was taken. However, I had the uncanny notion that at some unknown point in time I had actually … Continue reading →

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there are precedents for mystical encounters of various kinds

Posted on December 12, 2025 by Brian D. Butler

“A man breaking his journey between one place and another at a third place of no name, character, population or significance, sees a unicorn cross his path and disappear. That in itself is startling, but there are precedents for mystical … Continue reading →

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Top Secret

Posted on September 18, 2025 by Brian D. Butler

The 1984 action comedy Top Secret! contains an odd sequence set in a Swedish bookstore. Val Kilmer, Lucy Gutteridge, and Peter Cushing acted the entire scene backward, and the filmmakers then reversed this performance to produce a dreamlike atmosphere in which … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Bookstore Tourism, Europe, Film, Uncategorized | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Sometimes in a pickle is where to be

Posted on September 12, 2025 by Brian D. Butler

Over the years, I’ve discovered hundreds of used, secondhand and antiquarian bookshops, but none as unique as New York City’s Sweet Pickle Books.  The founder and owner Leigh Altshuler had always dreamed of opening her own bookstore, but the time never … Continue reading →

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Denmark is saving bookshops and inspiring readers

Posted on August 29, 2025 by Brian D. Butler

I was recently shocked to see many news stories about the dramatic decline in literacy in Denmark. Surveys have shown that reading skills of the nation’s children were in a steep decline. According to the New York Times, the Denmark’s … Continue reading →

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How 19th century literature can help survive autocracy

Posted on August 6, 2025 by Brian D. Butler

I must admit that I was never a big reader of 19th century French literature, other than Jules Verne. And, I somehow didn’t read Stendahl’s The Charterhouse of Parma. However, I was intrigued by a New York Times article that suggested … Continue reading →

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How Amsterdam Was Built

Posted on July 19, 2025 by Brian D. Butler

I have visited hundreds of cities over the decades, but Amsterdam is the one place that I have returned to over and over. If you have been there, it’s probably one of your favorite cities too. And, if you haven’t … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Europe, Film, Uncategorized | Tagged , , | 1 Comment