Ever since I visited the Roman ruins at Arenas de Lutece in Paris, I have been intrigued by the city’s early history. The wonderful video below offers a 3D animated tour of the city from 52 BCE until the late 19th century. It’s only 13 minutes long, but it’s packed with history.
A Child’s Garden of Verse, Robert Louis Stevenson, illustrations by Brian Wildsmith
In this era of vanishing neighborhood bookshops, Three Lives and Company in New York City’s Greenwich Village neighborhood is rare survivor. For four decades, this West Village indie has been quietly offering an exceptionally well-curated selection of literary fiction, narrative nonfiction, travel and more to an appreciative clientele made up of locals and tourists in the know. Owner Toby Cox is proud of the bookstore’s designation as a “pocket of civility” in the city. If you are visiting New York, take the time to stroll around Greenwich Village, grab a coffee at Stumptown, hang out in Washington Square Park, and browse Three Lives at 154 W. 10th street between 6th and 7th avenues.
What better way to celebrate Halloween than a bit of H.P. Lovecraft lore.
If you are looking for a memorable read for Halloween, you can’t go wrong with Shirley Jackson’s very spooky 1959 novel The Haunting of Hill House. The intriguing opening paragraph is one of the best in modern literature and will entice even the most reticent reader.
No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality; even larks and katydids are supposed, by some, to dream. Hill House, not sane, stood by itself against the hills, holding darkness within; it had stood so for eighty years and might stand for eighty more. Within, walls continued upright, bricks met neatly, floors were firm, and doors were sensibly shut; silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House, and whatever walked there, walked alone.
Tom Clark October
Travel Between The Pages 