Travel Between The Pages

Browse, Borrow, Board

Posted on May 26, 2023 by Brian D. Butler

The U.S. city of Boston is making borrowing reading material on-the-go more accessible through a pilot program that will offer public transit users access digital content from books and periodicals to audiobooks and newspapers at 20 bus stops across the city – no library card required.

The project – called “Browse, Borrow, Board” – gives riders access to e-books, audiobooks and other material through QR code links. The program doesn’t require an app, according to a news release from the mayor’s office.

“This pilot program builds on our efforts to make public transportation more enjoyable, while also connecting our residents to the resources the Boston Public Library already offers,” Boston Mayor Michelle Wu said in the news release.

Colorful decals with QR codes are conveniently placed on sidewalks at bus stops as well as on bus paths owned by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority throughout the city. The QR codes send users to a Boston Public Library website. The city has also released a map of where they’re located.

“Browse, Borrow, Board” was developed after the city conducted a survey about public transit last year and found that bus riders expressed high interested in accessing the Boston Public Library digitally on commutes, according to Maddie Webster, a program manager at the Mayor’s Office of New Urban Mechanics.

Five titles may be checked out at a time for a two-week period. After two weeks, patrons can rescan the QR code to register again and checkout more materials.

“We share in the value that knowledge and transportation could both be ‘Free to All.’ This opportunity connects public library and public transit offerings around learning and movement in our city,” said David Leonard, Boston Public Library president.

Posted in apps, Books, Libraries, Tech, USA | Tagged Boston, Boston Public Library, e-books, MBTA | Leave a comment

Don’t Panic It’s Towel Day

Posted on May 25, 2023 by Brian D. Butler

There isn’t a better time to release a collectible edition of Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy than on Towel Day May 25th. The Folio Society is releasing a special edition of Adams’ trilogy in five parts, featuring “70 illustrations by Jonathan Burton, 35 unique to these new volumes, and an exclusive preface by inspirational physicist Carol Rovelli.”There are just 750 of these sets being created; they’ll be hand-numbered and signed by the illustrator “on a limitation tip shining with holographic silver.” The binding designs, also created by Burton, are similarly lavish, “blocked in an eye-catching rainbow of foils and, arranged next to each other, they create a pleasing single image. The five volumes are presented in a display box fit for the President of the Galaxy himself, part-bound in glittering blue cloth with an explosion of silver stars on the interior. A transparent window—with DON’T PANIC inscribed in large friendly letters—allows a peek at the foil-blocked spines. Signed by the artist, this splendid edition is completed with a unique print of the Guide itself.”

Posted in Art, Books, Writing | Tagged Douglas Adams, Hitchhiker's Guide To Galaxy, Science Fiction and Fantasy, Towel Day | 2 Comments

Born into churros

Posted on May 24, 2023 by Brian D. Butler

Recently a friend asked me to suggest a good place to get churros in Madrid. I offered a few suggestions, but insisted that she first try the best churros con chocolate Madrid has to offer at Chocolat in the Huertas district. I can’t think of a better breakfast, treat, or late night snack than crispy, fried-to-perfection churros lightly dusted with sugar and dipped in piping hot, delicious thick hot chocolate. The charming video below, which profiles Charo Salguero Venegason, fondly known as “Grandmother of Churros,” is a real treat too. She’s a living legend from the small town of El Puerto de Santa María, Spain. Charo’s churreria isn’t just a business—it’s her life.

If the video doesn’t open, please click here.

Posted in Europe, Film, Restaurants, Tourism | Tagged Chocolate, churros, Madrid, Spain | 2 Comments

A very big book

Posted on May 23, 2023 by Brian D. Butler

This year marks the 400th anniversary of the publication of Shakespeare’s The First Folio. The collection of 36 plays by William Shakespeare that was published in London in 1623. Considered to be one of the most influential books ever published, only about 230 copies of an original printing of 750 copies are known to have survived. The Victoria and Albert Museum has three copies, and in the video below, they lead the viewer on a tour through one of them. In this video, Elizabeth James, senior librarian at the National Art Library in London, and Harriet Reed, curator of contemporary performance at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, open and explore this fascinating 400-year-old document, detailing its creation, content and enduring influence.

if the video fails to launch, please click here.

Posted in Books, Europe, History, Libraries, Museums | Tagged First Folio, London, Plays, Victoria and Albert Museum, William Shakespeare | 4 Comments

Tattoo You

Posted on May 22, 2023 by Brian D. Butler

Posted in Art, Books, Libraries | Tagged Cartoons, Comics, librarians | Leave a comment

The Poor Man’s Rembrandt

Posted on May 21, 2023 by Brian D. Butler

Visitors to Amsterdam often take home Rembrandt related artwork in the form of posters, postcards, or T-shirts. Now they can also take home permanent Dutch souvenirs on their own bodies. Travelers searching for that perfect keepsake of their time in the Netherlands can have one of Rembrandt van Rijn’s masterpieces in the form of a tattoo permanently applied by a tattoo studio aptly dubbed The Poor Man’s Rembrandt Project at the Rembrandthuis Museum.

Dutch tattoo artistsHenk Schiffmacher ( aka Hanky Panky) and Tycho Veldhoen will set up at the studio offering a wide variety designs based on the artist’s popular artworks. Rembrandt fans will get inked right where Rembrandt lived and worked from 1639 to 1658.

“We see ourselves as the artists’ house. Rembrandt was not just living there and working there, but also teaching his pupils,” museum director Milou Halbesma commented. “We want to work in our new studio space with Dutch artists to connect with the public—and we consider Schiffmacher and Veldhoen artists. It’s about the challenge for every museum: to reach the next generation.”

Tattoo buyers can choose from a variety of Rembrandt-inspired designs, from a selection of his self-portraits to imagery drawn from his etchings, as well a copy of the artist’s signature and even a drawing of the Rembrandt House Museum itself.

Posted in Art, Europe, History, Museums, Tourism | Tagged Amsterdam, Netherlands, Rembrandt, Tattoos | 1 Comment

How to design a transit map

Posted on May 20, 2023 by Brian D. Butler

If you are a regular visitor to Travel Between The Pages. you are probably aware of my long interest in public transit systems and the maps that help us negotiate those services. I’m not sure where my fascination with public transit began, but my best guess would be riding the New York City subways as a small child. As an adult, I always try and explore new cities via their transit networks and I still study transit maps wherever I go.

The beautifully designed regional transit map for Oslo, Norway above was created by designer Torger Jansen. In his 10-minute video below he explains how he designed an unofficial transit map that combines all three of Oslo’s public transportation networks (tram, metro, train) into a single diagram. His four main goals:

1. Showing all the lines on every network, thus making it easier to understand the service patterns.
2. Making it recognisable with the official line colours.
3. Compressing unnaturally long distances between stations.
4. Balancing aesthetics and accessibility. The diagram is clear and easy to read with minimal fuss.

As Jansen notes, this is not how a design process would work in the real world — there’s no user testing or competing stakeholders to please — but from a purely aesthetic and functional standpoint, it’s still an interesting challenge and puzzle to attempt to solve.

If the video does not open in your email, please click here.

Posted in Art, Europe, Maps, Public Transport, Tourism | Tagged Cartography, Norway, Oslo | Leave a comment

Bookstore Art

Posted on May 19, 2023 by Brian D. Butler

I have seen the painting pictured above many times online, but I only just took the time to research the artist. Although the image is often labeled as Bookstore (woman reading), I’m not sure what the actual title should be. The wonderfully atmospheric work is by the late Dutch artist Willy Elize Belinfante-Sauerbier. She often painted images of browsers in Amsterdam and Rotterdam bookshops and book markets. I managed to track down a few other images of painting and prints from this long series. The next time that i visited the Netherlands, I’ll be certain to try and locate more of her work.

Posted in Art, Books, Bookstore Tourism, Europe | Tagged Amsterdam, Netherlands, Painting, Rotterdam, Willy Elize Belinfante-Sauerbier | 3 Comments

What’s your sign

Posted on May 18, 2023 by Brian D. Butler

I have recently noticed a number of stories online suggesting that there is a resurgence in the popularity of astrology. While I do not want to wander into the quagmire of discussing astrology, it’s interesting to note that the pseudo-science has a long history of capturing the popular imagination in the United States.

Solar Biology by Hiram E. Butler (no relation) may have been the first book in North America to publicize a simplified astrology. Before Butler, astrological readings usually required quite detailed calculations involving time and place of birth that may be familiar to more hardcore astrology buffs. Butler’s book directly influenced the English astrologer and founder of modern astrologyAlan Leo. It is also interesting to see the Christian religious underpinnings of Butler’s work.

Solar Biology, by spiritualist and cult leader Hiram E. Butler, was published in 1887 by The Esoteric Publishing Co., one of the commercial arms of Butler’s Esoteric Fraternity. In addition Solar Biology, Butler and his followers published over 30 books, booklets, and periodicals from the group’s compound in California. The book was continually in print until 1970.