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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Sundry Sunday Seven

Posted on January 9, 2022 by Brian D. Butler

January 1, 2022 was Public Domain Day here in the USA. Among the works entering the public domain was Heminway’s great novel The Sun Also Rises. The Center for the Study of the Public Domain lists thousands of books and recordings now available for free use .

New York City’s newest bookstore Yu & Me Books in Chinatown is also one of the first Asian woman-owned bookstores in Manhattan.

I loved this long piece on Lithub by novelist and bookstore proprietor Emma Straub on her bookshop, her Brooklyn neighborhood, and her book loving customers.

Now that winter has finally descended on us, this little poem by Kenneth Roxreth, the Godfather of American Beat poets, offers a sliver of hope for the coming of spring.

Who hasn’t dreamed of owning a quaint English village.  Even if you haven’t, check out  Inside Britain’s privately owned villages 

I would like to spend a week or two at this amazing Hostel/Bookstore in China. Check out this stunning combination bookstore and hostel.

I’ve been badgering folks to visit the mindblowing Sir John Soane’s Museum in London for decades. For some reason it has never gotten the attention from tourists that it deserves. I recently ran across this link to one of the institution’s many unusual collections. In the 1700s, there was a vogue for carving fantastically exact models of ancient buildings in cork. The Museum maintains a large collection of cork models, including an 8 foot square Pompeii; the ruins are depicted exactly as they were in 1820, in an early phase of excavation. The Museum offers a 3D virtual tour, which means you can view models of models of buildings within a model of building.

 

Posted in Architecture, Art, Asia, Books, Bookstore Tourism, Europe, Hotels, Museums, Tourism, USA, Writing | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Every Day Is Caturday Somewhere

Posted on January 8, 2022 by Brian D. Butler

 

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When In Rome

Posted on January 7, 2022 by Brian D. Butler

Over the years I’ve visited dozens of ancient Roman ruin sites around Europe, but I don’t recall ever seeing any preserved or restored latrines. I recently stumbled upon this fascinating video on personal hygiene and public sanitation in ancient Rome and assumed that you’d like to see it too.

NB: If the video above does not appear or play, please click on the short url at the bottom of your email.

 

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Books Saved the Town, Now the Internet Is Killing It

Posted on January 6, 2022 by Brian D. Butler

Four decades ago, the little Belgian town of Redu was revitalized by its transformation into the Village Du Livre. The village that had been shrinking fast as farm jobs disappeared and families moved away. But in the mid-1980s, a group of booksellers moved into the empty shops and barns and transformed the place into a booklovers’ destination. The community of about 400 became home to more than two dozen bookshops and each year thousands of tourists thronged its quaint streets.

Sadly, now more than half the bookstores have closed. Some of the booksellers died, while others quit due their inabilty to compete with internet-based bookstores and digital books. Many who remain are now in their 70s and aren’t sure what will happen after they’re gone.

With only a dozen or so bookshops remaining in the booktown, the less optimistic say that their trade has fallen out of fashion, and that people, especially young people in Belgium, are reading fewer books.

Anne Laffut, the mayor Redu is located, has offered a counter-narrative: “Life is changing, but nothing is dying. Everything is evolving…. There is a change of mentalities. The elders think the village is changing because there are fewer bookstores and it is a disappointment. But there is a new generation which is very active in Redu. Many volunteers are teaming up with the same desire for the village to continue to endure.”

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Mary Shelley Shattered Expectations

Posted on January 5, 2022 by Brian D. Butler

This original copy of Shelley’s Frankenstein: or, the Modern Prometheus was published anonymously on January 1, 1818. It recently sold at auction for $1.17 million. Courtesy of Christie’s Images Ltd. 2021

Each year at this time I check out the Rare Book Hub Top 500 prices paid at auction in the books and paper field for the previous year. In 2021 prices skyrocketed across the board. Here’s a link to the Top 500.  At the very top, the most expensive item sold for over $43 million, the highest ever for something in the collectible paper field. More amazing was the increase at #500, as this is more indicative of the high end of the field than one single item at the top. Number 500 sold for $119,700.

What really caught my attention from the 2021 list was the sale of a First Edition of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein for an astonishing $1.17 million. The three-volume set broke the auction record for a printed work by a woman. The lot’s pre-sale estimate was $200,000 to $300,000. The previous world record for a printed work by a woman was set in 2008, when a first edition of Jane Austen’s 1816 novel Emma sold for around $205,000.

The record-breaking copy of Frankenstein is especially notewothy because it retains its original boards—the blueish gray pasteboards that cover each volume. Nineteenth-century publishers used these disposable coverings to bind and sell books, with the expectation that books’ new owners would eventually replace them with a permanent custom bindings.

 

 

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Move-in Ready

Posted on January 4, 2022 by Brian D. Butler

I’m seriously considering building one of these book igloos and moving in for the duration of the pandemic. These book sculptures are the work of the brilliant Columbian artist Miler Lagos.

 

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How is a book like a spoon ?

Posted on January 3, 2022 by Brian D. Butler

I was recently asked by a TBTP subscriber why I never posted any stories about e-books or e-readers. My flippant response was to share the quote (above) from the late, great author/philosopher/bibliophile Umberto Eco from his book This Is Not the End of the Book.

“The book is like the spoon, scissors, the hammer, the wheel. Once invented, it cannot be improved. You cannot make a spoon that is better than a spoon.”

In retrospect, I think that the original query deserves a more nuanced response. As a bookseller, book collector, erstwhile author, sometime editor, life-long reader, and blogger, I am an unwavering book lover who believes that no digital alternative comes close to the printed paper page. Still, that does not mean that I am a Luddite against electronic publishing.  I read books and periodicals on my iPad and iPhone, and I’ve owned a Kindle for years. No more carrying multiple paperbacks with me when I travel and no more scrounging English language books when I run out of reading material on long trips.

The traditional printed book is not perfect. Books have become expensive to produce, too often limiting ownership and access. It still is a time-consuming, labor intensive process to publish and distribute print books. Once a book is printed, it is not easily updated. But until electronic publishing finds a way to rival the multisensory experience of reading even a modestly produced physical book, it will continue to provide only a second rate reading experience, and the death of the book will be postponed once more.

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You’re next on my list

Posted on January 2, 2022 by Brian D. Butler

 

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