Category Archives: Writing

Just a postcard from Kafka

Posted on December 5, 2022 by Brian D. Butler

I recently stumbled on this postcard from the German National Library that is dated 1918 from Franz Kafka to his publisher Kurt Wolff. Personally, I never sent postcards to my publisher, but then again he was a terrible person. And … Continue reading →

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The Very Persistent Gappers of Frip

Posted on December 2, 2022 by Brian D. Butler

I was today years old when I discovered that America’s greatest living short story writer George Saunders published a children’s book more than 20 years ago. Issued in 2000 by Villard Books, an imprint of Random House, The Very Persistent … Continue reading →

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What’s the Word

Posted on November 29, 2022 by Brian D. Butler

Merriam-Webster  dictionary reports that its word of the year is the manipulative, misdirecting term that causes the target to question the surety of their own sanity, is taken from the title of the George Cukor 1944 classic film Gaslight. Although in … Continue reading →

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Nation States

Posted on November 27, 2022 by Brian D. Butler

I recently discovered that one of my favorite sci-fi authors has been running a wonderful website for 20 years that allows users to create, grow, and administer their own nation state. Australian writer Max Barry’s website NationStates offers the opportunity to own … Continue reading →

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Everybody Loves a Travel Guidebook Parody

Posted on November 23, 2022 by Brian D. Butler

Here in North America the travel guidebook author and travel show host Rick Steves is almost universally loved, but is also the target of good natured satire as well. While I’ve met Rick, and even spent an afternoon hanging with … Continue reading →

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Still Autumn

Posted on November 22, 2022 by Brian D. Butler

Autumn – Jane Hirshfield Again the wind flakes gold-leaf from the trees and the painting darkens— as if a thousand penitents kissed an icon till it thinned back to bare wood, without diminishment.  

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Bizarre Books

Posted on November 21, 2022 by Brian D. Butler

Brian Lake who manages Jarndyce Antiquarian Booksellers in Bloomsbury, London has compiled  a volume of truly odd and eccentric book covers in his new book Librorum Ridiculorum A Compendium of Bizarre Books. The books in the collection range from fairly … Continue reading →

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It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.

Posted on November 20, 2022 by Brian D. Butler

George Orwell’s seminal dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four became a powerful symbol of resistance to totalitarianism. Last month an impressive reproduction of the novel’s original manuscript was released by SP Books. The only surviving Orwell manuscript of any of his works … Continue reading →

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Brooklyn Public Library’s Most Borrowed Book

Posted on November 19, 2022 by Brian D. Butler

When I was a young child I spent quite a lot of time in Brooklyn. I did the usual things that Brooklyn kids did; I played stick ball in the street and stuffed my face at the corner candy store. … Continue reading →

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Winter Preparations

Posted on November 16, 2022 by Brian D. Butler

 

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