Dream within a Dream

Posted on January 19, 2022 by Brian D. Butler

Happy Birthday, Edgar Allan Poe

A Dream Within A Dream

 

by Edgar Allan Poe
(published 1850)

  

Take this kiss upon the brow!
And, in parting from you now,
Thus much let me avow —
You are not wrong, who deem
That my days have been a dream;
Yet if hope has flown away
In a night, or in a day,
In a vision, or in none,
Is it therefore the less gone?
All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream.

I stand amid the roar
Of a surf-tormented shore,
And I hold within my hand
Grains of the golden sand —
How few! yet how they creep
Through my fingers to the deep,
While I weep — while I weep!
O God! can I not grasp
Them with a tighter clasp?
O God! can I not save
One from the pitiless wave?
Is all that we see or seem
But a dream within a dream?

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If music be the food of love…

Posted on January 18, 2022 by Brian D. Butler

 

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Some Habits Are Good for You

Posted on January 17, 2022 by Brian D. Butler

Judging by the state of public discourse in the United States, these shocking statistics are not all that surprising.

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Down the Rabbit-Hole Again

Posted on January 16, 2022 by Brian D. Butler

If you are a regular visitor to Travel Between The Pages, you are probably aware that our primary goal is to bore you with every new published version of Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland that we discover. The most recent find is the 1929 edition with pen and ink illustrations by the Hungarian-born, American artist Willy Pogany.

Until this version was published, Alice was typically portrayed as a little girl in mid-19th century garb, but Pogany updated Carroll’s heroine to be taller, thinner, and older. He also dressed  Alice in a short, plaid skirt, short sleeve top with a tie, and knee socks. Her hair is bobbed in the pageboy style. In essence, a child of the Roaring Twenties rather than the Victorian era.

 

 

 

 

 

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Living in a Simulation

Posted on January 15, 2022 by Brian D. Butler

Tom Clark (1941-2018)

 

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Russia’s Cultural Capital

Posted on January 14, 2022 by Brian D. Butler

I’ve only had the opportunity to visit Saint Petersburg once, but I loved every minute that I spent in Russia’s cultural capital. The absolutely stunning video below offers enchanting aerial views of the gorgeous city. Saint Petersburg is captured in all of its glory by Timelab, which created an amazing tour during the city’s famed White Nights.

 

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No Direction Home

Posted on January 13, 2022 by Brian D. Butler

Amsterdam-based Austrian graphic designer Philipp Doringer’s obsession with Bob Dylan has resulted in the “Atlas Of No Direction Home”, a cartographic gazetteer of all the locations relevant to Bob Dylan’s career. The book contains all the locations relevant to Bob Dylan’s career. It lists all the places mentioned in his songs, the towns where his studio albums were recorded, the venues of his tours, and other places that played an important role in his life.

The atlas is organized through a geographic coordinates system. The longitudinal coordinates, which run West to East, W 180° to E 180°, are used as page numbers.
Since Duluth, Minnesota is Bob Dylan’s birthplace the book begins with the longitude coordinates of this city, W 92°. From there the book goes around the world once, from west to east, going over every degree like a scanner and collecting all places located there. In addition to the database, maps show all the places mentioned in the book, as well as the locations of all the venues for Dylan’s ongoing Never Ending Tour.

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Now Get Back To Work

Posted on January 12, 2022 by Brian D. Butler

 

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Bowie’s Books

Posted on January 11, 2022 by Brian D. Butler

Last weekend I noticed numerous stories online that celebrated the late, great David Bowie’s birthday. They reminded me of a list that made the rounds a number of years back of Bowie’s 75 favorite books. You may find some surprises on the list, but it demonstrates an exceptionally wide range of genres, subjects, and interests. I tracked down the list just for you and here it is:

  1. The Age of American Unreason (public library) by Susan Jacoby (2008)
  2. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (public library) by Junot Diaz (2007)
  3. The Coast of Utopia (trilogy) (public library) by Tom Stoppard (2007)
  4. Teenage: The Creation of Youth 1875–1945 (public library) by Jon Savage (2007)
  5. Fingersmith (public library) by Sarah Waters (2002)
  6. The Trial of Henry Kissinger (public library) by Christopher Hitchens (2001)
  7. Mr. Wilson’s Cabinet of Wonder (public library) by Lawrence Weschler (1997)
  8. A People’s Tragedy: The Russian Revolution 1890–1924 (public library) by Orlando Figes (1997)
  9. The Insult (public library) by Rupert Thomson (1996)
  10. Wonder Boys (public library) by Michael Chabon (1995)
  11. The Bird Artist (public library) by Howard Norman (1994)
  12. Kafka Was the Rage: A Greenwich Village Memoir (public library) by Anatole Broyard (1993)
  13. Beyond the Brillo Box: The Visual Arts in Post-Historical Perspective (public library) by Arthur C. Danto (1992)
  14. Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson (public library) by Camille Paglia (1990)
  15. David Bomberg (public library) by Richard Cork (1988)
  16. Sweet Soul Music: Rhythm and Blues and the Southern Dream of Freedom (public library) by Peter Guralnick (1986)
  17. The Songlines (public library) by Bruce Chatwin (1986)
  18. Hawksmoor (public library) by Peter Ackroyd (1985)
  19. Nowhere to Run: The Story of Soul Music (public library) by Gerri Hirshey (1984)
  20. Nights at the Circus (public library) by Angela Carter (1984)
  21. Money (public library) by Martin Amis (1984)
  22. White Noise (public library) by Don DeLillo (1984)
  23. Flaubert’s Parrot (public library) by Julian Barnes (1984)
  24. The Life and Times of Little Richard (public library) by Charles White (1984)
  25. A People’s History of the United States (public library) by Howard Zinn (1980)
  26. A Confederacy of Dunces (public library) by John Kennedy Toole (1980)
  27. Interviews with Francis Bacon (public library) by David Sylvester (1980)
  28. Darkness at Noon (public library) by Arthur Koestler (1980)
  29. Earthly Powers (public library) by Anthony Burgess (1980)
  30. Raw, a “graphix magazine” (1980–1991)
  31. Viz, magazine (1979–)
  32. The Gnostic Gospels (public library) by Elaine Pagels (1979)
  33. Metropolitan Life (public library) by Fran Lebowitz (1978)
  34. In Between the Sheets (public library) by Ian McEwan (1978)
  35. Writers at Work: The Paris Review Interviews (public library) by ed Malcolm Cowley (1977)
  36. The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind (public library) by Julian Jaynes (1976)
  37. Tales of Beatnik Glory (public library) by Ed Saunders (1975)
  38. Mystery Train (public library) by Greil Marcus (1975)
  39. Selected Poems (public library) by Frank O’Hara (1974)
  40. Before the Deluge: A Portrait of Berlin in the 1920s (public library) by Otto Friedrich (1972)
  41. In Bluebeard’s Castle: Some Notes Towards the Re-definition of Culture (public library) by George Steiner (1971)
  42. Octobriana and the Russian Underground (public library) by Peter Sadecky (1971)
  43. The Sound of the City: The Rise of Rock and Roll (public library) by Charlie Gillett (1970)
  44. The Quest for Christa T (public library) by Christa Wolf (1968)
  45. Awopbopaloobop Alopbamboom: The Golden Age of Rock (public library) by Nik Cohn (1968)
  46. The Master and Margarita (public library) by Mikhail Bulgakov (1967)
  47. Journey into the Whirlwind (public library) by Eugenia Ginzburg (1967)
  48. Last Exit to Brooklyn (public library) by Hubert Selby Jr. (1966)
  49. In Cold Blood (public library) by Truman Capote (1965)
  50. City of Night (public library) by John Rechy (1965)
  51. Herzog (public library) by Saul Bellow (1964)
  52. Puckoon (public library) by Spike Milligan (1963)
  53. The American Way of Death (public library) by Jessica Mitford (1963)
  54. The Sailor Who Fell from Grace With the Sea (public library) by Yukio Mishima (1963)
  55. The Fire Next Time (public library) by James Baldwin (1963)
  56. A Clockwork Orange (public library) by Anthony Burgess (1962)
  57. Inside the Whale and Other Essays (public library) by George Orwell (1962)
  58. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (public library) by Muriel Spark (1961)
  59. Private Eye, magazine (1961–)
  60. On Having No Head: Zen and the Rediscovery of the Obvious (public library) by Douglas Harding (1961)
  61. Silence: Lectures and Writing (public library) by John Cage (1961)
  62. Strange People (public library) by Frank Edwards (1961)
  63. The Divided Self (public library) by R. D. Laing (1960)
  64. All the Emperor’s Horses (public library) by David Kidd (1960)
  65. Billy Liar (public library) by Keith Waterhouse (1959)
  66. The Leopard (public library) by Giuseppe di Lampedusa (1958)
  67. On the Road (public library) by Jack Kerouac (1957)
  68. The Hidden Persuaders (public library) by Vance Packard (1957)
  69. Room at the Top (public library) by John Braine (1957)
  70. A Grave for a Dolphin (public library) by Alberto Denti di Pirajno (1956)
  71. The Outsider (public library) by Colin Wilson (1956)
  72. Lolita (public library) by Vladimir Nabokov (1955)
  73. Nineteen Eighty-Four (public library) by George Orwell (1949)
  74. The Street (public library) by Ann Petry (1946)
  75. Black Boy (public library) by Richard Wright (1945)
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A Bookstore With A Big Heart

Posted on January 10, 2022 by Brian D. Butler

The awardwinning Boulder Bookstore in the beautiful town of Boulder, Colorado has been the cornerstone of the local community for nearly half a century. Once again the store’s family has stepped-up to address an area tragedy in response to the recent devastating wild fires.

The Boulder Book Store is partnering with the nonprofit organization Impact on Education to provide Boulder Valley School District students who lost their homes in the recent Marshall Fire a gift card to the store. The store aims to give a gift card worth at least $100 to the 500-plus affected students and is asking the public for donations.

“We know how important it is for a child’s sense of security and well-being to have their favorite books nearby,” the store wrote on its site, where donations can be made. “Whether it is the Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Harry Potter or the Hunger Games, we want to enable each student to reclaim their beloved books and perhaps discover some new ones.”

The full amount of every donation will go toward the gift card, and each student will receive a 33% discount when they use the gift card. Thus, a $100 gift card will buy $150 worth of books.

“We need your help to reach this ambitious goal,” the store added. “Thank you for whatever you are able to give.”

You can find out more about the 2018 Bookstore of the Year on our post from 2018.

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