Category Archives: Europe

Dracula Returns (daily)

Posted on May 2, 2024 by Brian D. Butler

Dracula Daily Returning May 3 You may remember DraculaDaily, which has been an annual paean to the beloved Gothic vampire classic first published in 1897. The novel Dracula by Bram Stoker unfolds over the course of six months, from May … Continue reading →

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Bookstore Tourism : Iceland

Posted on May 1, 2024 by Brian D. Butler

About seven ago while visiting Iceland’s underappreciated northern town Akureyri, I stumbled across a charming used bookshop called Fróði fornbókabúð. The owner at the time told me that the name meant something like “learned bookstore”. The shop was a bit … Continue reading →

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When in Rome

Posted on April 30, 2024 by Brian D. Butler

When I visited Rome for the first time more than four decades ago, I quite randomly chose to pop in at the Museo della Civiltà Romana to see the massive model of the ancient city. The archaeologist and architect Italo Gismondi … Continue reading →

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Biblio Trivia

Posted on April 28, 2024 by Brian D. Butler

  1. The rarest book in the world is a 1593 first edition of Venus and Adonis by William Shakespeare. The Bodleian’s copy “is the only known copy of this book in existence.” 2. The first book ordered on Amazon was a scientific tome called Fluid Concepts … Continue reading →

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The Dwindleberry Zoo

Posted on April 26, 2024 by Brian D. Butler

I was today years old when I discovered THE DWINDLEBERRY ZOO by G.E. Farrow (London/Glasgow/Dublin/Bombay: Blackie, 1909) Illustrated by Gordon Browne.  It seems that G.E. Farrow was one of the masters of the Victorian fantasy genre. In this tale a boy eats a … Continue reading →

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Books and Roses Day

Posted on April 23, 2024 by Brian D. Butler

Barcelona is all about roses, books and lovers on April 23rd each year. In Catalonia World Book Day also becomes an especially romantic festival. People celebrate the day of their patron saint, Sant Jordi (Saint George), with a curious tradition. … Continue reading →

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Conflict Cartography

Posted on April 18, 2024 by Brian D. Butler

I was recently bemoaning the fact that the main stream media in the United States can’t seem to focus on more than two serious conflicts at the same time, and even then, the coverage is sorely lacking. But I just … Continue reading →

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Go To A Happy Place

Posted on April 16, 2024 by Brian D. Butler

One Minute Park: I really, really enjoy this pure dead simple website.  One Minute Park couldn’t be more basic – click the link and you get transported to a  full-screen video, in landscape, which lasts for exactly 60 seconds and … Continue reading →

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First Impressions

Posted on April 15, 2024 by Brian D. Butler

On April 15, 1874, thirty artists, including Edgar Degas, Paul Cezanne, Claude Monet, Berthe Morisot, Camille Pissarro, Pierre Auguste Renoir, and Alfred Sisley, held an exhibition of their works in Paris, at the Boulevard des Capucines, the vacant studio of the photographer Nadar (Gaspard-Félix … Continue reading →

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Speaking Of

Posted on April 12, 2024 by Brian D. Butler

 

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