Yes, You Can Tell A Book By Its Cover

Posted on May 11, 2020 by Brian D. Butler

Nicholas Love created the super fun  Penguin Classics cover generator  which allows you  to upload an image and set type for an amusing imitation of the famous book cover design. It’s a great way for bibliophiles to while away the quarantine hours.

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The Not-Quite-Quiet Library

Posted on May 10, 2020 by Brian D. Butler

My family and friends who are on lockdown in New York City have noted just how preternaturally quiet it has been lately. Not day in the country quiet, but actual birds singing, wind in the trees, individual voices, and cars make up the collage of the city soundscape right now. It’s hard to imagine the city without the constant low level cacophony as background. The good news is that the New York Public Library is offering some aural normalcy with their album Missing Sounds of New York which was recently released and is described as:

A new immersive experience, the album is a collection of audio landscapes that evoke some of the sounds of New York City. Missing Sounds of New York, a partnership with creative agency Mother New York, is a love letter to NYC, connecting New Yorkers around the familiar sounds of urban life that they love and miss during this unprecedented time of social separation.

Tracks include “To See an Underground Show,” “Never Call It a Night Again,” and best of all for us bibliophiles “Not-Quite-Quiet Library.” Each soundscape is not just white noise, but a narrative. The “Not-Quiet-Quiet Library” follows a reader into the Stephen A. Schwarzman Library, past a tour group and a helpful librarian before finding a quiet-ish place to read.

 

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Stay Home and Read

Posted on May 9, 2020 by Brian D. Butler

 

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but then you read

Posted on May 8, 2020 by Brian D. Butler

 

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2nd Hand Reading

Posted on May 7, 2020 by Brian D. Butler

I’ve long been a fan of South African artist William Kentridge’s eclectic work. His book art/film blend has always captured my attention. 2nd Hand Reading is not recent, but it’s a good introduction to his work.

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The Last Word Spoken

Posted on May 6, 2020 by Brian D. Butler

Testimony: 1968
Rita Dove
Who comforts you now that the wheel has broken?
No more princes for the poor. Loss whittling you thin.
Grief is the constant now, hope the last word spoken.In a dance of two elegies, which circles the drain? A token
year with its daisies and carbines is where we begin.
Who comforts you now? That the wheel has brokenis Mechanics 101; to keep dreaming when the joke’s on
you? Well, crazier legends have been written.
Grief is the constant now; hope, the last word spokenon a motel balcony, shouted in a hotel kitchen. No kin
can make this journey for you. The route’s locked in.
Who comforts you now that the wheel has broken

the bodies of its makers? Beyond the smoke and
ashes, what you hear rising is nothing but the wind.
Who comforts you? Now that the wheel has broken,

grief is the constant. Hope: the last word spoken.

Copyright © 2020 by Rita Dove
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the more you use, the more you get back

Posted on May 5, 2020 by Brian D. Butler

Regular visitors to TBTP may know that my most recent obsession has been roasting my own coffee beans. Fortunately it’s a pursuit that’s heartily supported by friends and family who benefit from the hours of exploration and experimentation. While researching all things coffee, I sometimes stumble upon quirky coffee related stuff such as the odd little film below. Good Strong Coffee appears to be a short film created in 1968 to market coffee as a product rather than one specific brand. From what I can gather, the brief film was meant to be shown in British cinemas. Although I haven’t discovered who directed this gem, I don’t doubt that the creator was influenced by Michelangelo Antonioni’s 1966 Pop-noir film Blow-up and the classic TV show The Prisoner. It’s well worth two minutes of your time for this slice of 60s culture. And if you are a true coffee and/or cinema fan, stay for the feature film Coffee and Cigarettes, Jim Jarmusch’s 2003 cult fave. It’s got Tom Waits, Steve Coogan, Cate Blanchett, Steve Buscemi, Iggy Pop, and Bill Murray.

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Plague Dreams

Posted on May 4, 2020 by Brian D. Butler

Being an insomniac is not pleasant during the best of times, but during this bizarre pandemic it’s especially challenging. One of the ways that I soothe myself when I am unable to sleep is to recall some of the wonderful places that I’ve been fortunate to visit over the years. If I am really struggling with sleep, I even resort to playing a memory game in which I attempt to recall in detail entire trips. Other times I simply focus on remembering the specifics of an extraordinary place that I’ve been. For example, one of my all time favorite libraries in the world is the spectacular Baroque Klementinium in Prague. When I first saw the library nearly 30 years ago, the city wasn’t yet drowning in tourists and I literally had the place to myself. If you love books, libraries, art, and architecture it is a must destination. Until travel returns to some degree of normality, we will have do with virtual visits.

You can step into the library via its own  360-degree tour and see shelves packed with  literature beneath a ceiling of  stunning frescoes. In addition to housing more than 20,000 books, the library includes a collection of terrestrial and celestial globes. You can also explore nearby chambers, such as the  public reading room flanked by massive frescoes and an observatory in the astronomical tower.

 

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Harry Potter and The Handmaid’s Tale

Posted on May 3, 2020 by Brian D. Butler

The American Library Association recently released its annual list of the Top 10 Most Challenged Books, included as part of its 2020 State of America’s Libraries report. This report offers an annual summary of library trends, statistics and issues affecting all types of libraries during the previous year.

Here in the U.S., despite the naysayers, the popularity of libraries continues to increase.   Adults report an average of 10.5 trips per year to the library, which exceeds the amount of trips made to movie theaters, museums or zoos. The report also found a trend of libraries becoming “libraries of things,” and offering collections of items like “mattresses, dolls, bicycles, binoculars and accordions.”

Sadly, the also report found a 17% increase in the number of books targeted for removal or restriction, the majority of them featuring or addressing LGBTQIA+ content. The ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom tracked 377 challenges in 2019, with 566 books targeted overall. The most frequently challenged titles last year were:

  1. George by Alex Gino
  2. Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out by Susan Kuklin
  3. Last Week Tonight with John Oliver Presents A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo by Jill Twiss, illustrated by EG Keller
  4. Sex Is a Funny Word by Cory Silverberg, illustrated by Fiona Smyth
  5. Prince & Knight by Daniel Haack, illustrated by Stevie Lewis Reasons
  6. I Am Jazz by Jessica Herthel and Jazz Jennings, illustrated by Shelagh McNicholas
  7. The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
  8. Drama, written and illustrated by Raina Telgemeier
  9. The Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling
  10. And Tango Makes Three by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson, illustrated by Henry Cole Reason
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Literary Conflicts

Posted on May 2, 2020 by Brian D. Butler

 

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