Writers Against Authoritarians

Posted on November 3, 2020 by Brian D. Butler

Writers Against Trump is an association of American authors and writers working together to oppose Mango Mussolini’s regime and re-election, and to encourage voter turnout. They are planning a series of post-election events on November 5, in partnership with several independent bookstores around the United States.

Bookstore-based events will happen throughout the day, followed by a national event during the evening that will bring together Paul Auster, Salman Rushdie, Rebecca Solnit and Natasha Trethewey for a roundtable discussion on what just happened, what’s happening now, and what must happen next.

A number of independent bookstores plan to host virtual events, including Harvard Book Store in Cambridge, Mass., Community Bookstore in Brooklyn, N.Y., Flyleaf Books in Chapel Hill, N.C., Books & Books in Miami, Fla., Brazos Bookstore in Houston, Tex., City Lights Books in San Francisco, Calif., and Seminary Co-op Bookstores in Chicago, Il. A complete list of events can be found here.

 

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Help Save a Paris Landmark

Posted on November 2, 2020 by Brian D. Butler

I have had the pleasure of visiting Paris many times over the last 40 years. And ever time that I’m in Paris the iconic bookstore Shakespeare and Company is one of my first stops. Even if you have never been to Paris, it’s likely that you have seen photos of the historic shop. Sadly, during the pandemic the landmark bookstore has experienced an 80% drop in revenue since March.  Located just a stones throw from Notre Dame Cathedral, on the Left Bank, the shop usually attracts hundreds of visitors a day to its warren of book packed rooms.

The late American-born George Whitman took over the bookshop in 1951, but it was originally founded in 1919 by Sylvia Beach. For decades, Shakespeare and Company was a magnet for great writers like James Joyce, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Anaïs Nin, James Baldwin, and  Ernest Hemingway.

Today, the historic bookshop is run by George’s daughter, Sylvia Whitman, who has appealed to customers to support it through buying a tote bag, placing an online order for a book or gift or purchasing a gift voucher for future use. Fans can also subscribe to a “Year of Reading,” where they will receive 12 books selected and introduced by the store’s team of booksellers. You can check out Shakespeare and Company’s website here.

Proprietor Sylvia Whitman told the Guardian: “We’re not closing our doors, but we’ve gone through all of our savings… which we were lucky to build up, and we have also been making use of the support from the government, and especially the furlough scheme. But it doesn’t cover everything, and we’ve delayed quite a lot of rent that we have…. Right now our cafe and bookshop is open, but it’s looking like we will have to close both because bookshops are considered non-essential. The one big difference is that we’re adamant this time we’re going to be ready to keep the website open.”

“Today, each morning, taking down the wooden shutters, opening those same doors, and welcoming readers and writers–whether travelers from across the world or the Parisians who are still able to visit us–always feels like an immense privilege. Because, as well as being a bookshop, Shakespeare and Company is a community, a commune (often literally), of which you are all a part. We are here today, almost seventy years after that first morning, because of you. We send our best wishes for your health and safety. May we all thrive together soon.”

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You can judge these books by their covers

Posted on November 1, 2020 by Brian D. Butler

California-based artist Seth Bogart is a painter, designer, musician, and ceramic artist. TBTP reader Will tipped me to these very clever ceramic books and book covers from a recent series by Bogart. You can see more of these “hardcover” volumes and check some of Seth’s many other brilliant projects right here

 

 

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Halloween Travel Haunts

Posted on October 31, 2020 by Brian D. Butler

I have to admit that I was surprised to discover that Larnach Castle in Otago, New Zealand was on a list of 45 haunted travel destinations in a Condé Nast Traveler article on the spine-tingling subject. When I visited the imposing old home last November, it was anything but spooky. If anything, the castle was a charming mash-up of historic and kitschy. On the other hand, Edinburgh Castle in Scotland creeps me out every time I enter the fortress. You can almost here the chains rattling and the eerie 900 year-old castle offers a chilling experience any time of the year. The article makes for spooky reading. I was a bit unnerved to discover how many of these haunted travel destinations that I’ve already visited.

 

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I shared a vagrant optimism

Posted on October 30, 2020 by Brian D. Butler

Hunter S. Thompson —”I shared a vagrant optimism that some of us were making real progress, that we had taken an honest road, and that the best of us would inevitably make it over the top. At the same time, I felt that the life we were leading was a lost cause, that we were all actors, kidding ourselves on a senseless odyssey. It was the tension between those two poles…a restless idealism on one hand and a sense of impending doom on the other…that kept me going.”

Sylvia Plath — “Remember, remember, this is now, and now, and now. Live it, feel it, cling to it. I want to become acutely aware of all I’ve taken for granted.”

Charles Bukowski — “And remember this: the page you are looking at now, I once typed the words with care with you in mind under a yellow light with the radio on.”

Haruki Murakami — “What we see before us is just one tiny part of the world. We get in the habit of thinking, this is the world, but that’s not true at all. The real world is a much darker and deeper place than this, and much of it is occupied by jellyfish and things.”

Toni Morrison — “And fantasy it was, for we were not strong, only aggressive; we were not free, merely licensed; we were not compassionate, we were polite; not good, but well behaved. We courted death in order to call ourselves brave, and hid like thieves from life. We substituted good grammar for intellect; we switched habits to simulate maturity; we rearranged lies and called it truth.”

Jack Kerouac — “Don’t use the phone. People are never ready to answer it. Use poetry.”

 

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Reading is good for you

Posted on October 29, 2020 by Brian D. Butler

 

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Belief and Technique by Jack Kerouac

Posted on October 28, 2020 by Brian D. Butler

 

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Bookstore Tourism Philadelphia

Posted on October 27, 2020 by Brian D. Butler

It took a big leap of faith for the New York City bookshop Shakespeare & Co to open a branch in the high rent Philadelphia Center City Rittenhouse Square neighborhood two years ago. Somehow they’ve managed to hang on during these crazy times and are open again. If you are in Philly, it’s well worth a visit to this small, but very stylish bookstore. Their inventory is well curated and the in-house café is quite good too.

 

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Welcome to Planet Word

Posted on October 26, 2020 by Brian D. Butler

Last week a long-awaited new museum opened in Washington, D.C. that will be a must-see destination for readers and language lovers. Planet Word is promoted as “a revolutionary museum dedicated to the power, beauty, and fun of language and to showing how words shape the human experience.”

 The  museum’s press release notes, “Planet Word will be the world’s first voice-activated museum, featuring immersive galleries and exhibits that will engage visitors of all ages in experiencing words and language from a wide range of perspectives.” Planet Word is housed at DC’s historic Franklin School building, which has been rehabilitated and beautifully restored. Thanks to efforts led by Planet Word’s CEO and founder Ann B. Friedman, general admission will be free.

You can check-out what to expect from the museum’s interactive exhibits here. They include “Where Do Words Come From?,” a 22-foot-tall talking word wall that shares the story of the English language, “Word Worlds,” which allows visitors to transform a room with color, sound, and motion by painting with words, and “Words Matter,” where visitors can record and listen to stories about how the power of words has shaped their lives.

I usually visit DC at least once a year, so I look forward to seeing Planet Word when the world returns to normal. Until then, I’ll be following the museum’s progress on social media (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram) .

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Into the Haunted Looking Glass

Posted on October 25, 2020 by Brian D. Butler

The Haunted Looking Glass is the late Edward Gorey’s selection of his favorite tales of ghosts, ghouls, and grisly goings-on. It includes stories by Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins, M. R. James, W. W. Jacobs, and L. P. Hartley, among other masters of the fine art of making the flesh creep, all accompanied by Gorey’s inimitable illustrations. In 1959, Gorey selected 12 classic horror tales for this delightfully eerie anthology, which stands on its own merits as a historical introduction to the genre. This delightfully weird anthology by the neo-Victorian Surrealist illustrator was originally published by Random House, and release in later hardcover and paperback editions by other publishers.

ALGERNON BLACKWOOD, “The Empty House”
W.F. HARVEY, “August Heat”
CHARLES DICKENS, “The Signalman”
L.P. HARTLEY, “A Visitor from Down Under”
R.H. MALDEN, “The Thirteenth Tree”
ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON, “The Body-Snatcher”
E. NESBIT, “Man-Size in Marble”
BRAM STOKER, “The Judge’s House”
TOM HOOD, “The Shadow of a Shade”
W.W. JACOBS, “The Monkey’s Paw,”
WILKIE COLLINS, “The Dream Woman”
M.R. JAMES, “Casting the Runes”

 

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