Reading Cities

Posted on July 14, 2019 by Brian D. Butler

When I am planning my travels, I always spend time reading about the destinations. Those of you who follow TBTP know that I am devoted to old school travel guidebooks, but I also do my due diligence by reading both fiction and nonfiction set where I plan to visit. The wonderful new, and still developing, website Reading The City is a great resource for ideas about background research on destinations as diverse as London, Johannesburg, Berlin, and Boston. You will discover thoughtful reading suggestions, as well as “city notes” on local history, architecture, urban design, tourism, and things to do. The website also solicits participation from readers in the form of our book recommendations. Take a look and even share your favorite reads on travel spots with the site creator Julia Feld.

 

 

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Watching Operation Night Watch

Posted on July 13, 2019 by Brian D. Butler

Rembrandt’s famous painting The Night Watch at Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum is not my favorite work from the master, or my favorite painting in the great institution. However, every time that I’m in Amsterdam somehow I find myself in front of the iconic work of art. This month, the museum has begun its most significant restoration project of the priceless Rembrandt ever undertaken. Dubbed “Operation Night Watch” by the Rijksmuseum, the endeavor can be seen without the cost of airfare to the Netherlands. We can all follow along in real time online via a dedicated website.

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This Is The End(papers)

Posted on July 12, 2019 by Brian D. Butler

Those of us who are true book geeks suffer from an obsessive fascination with all aspects of books. We don’t just like reading books, or collecting books, we love the physicality of books. Some of us are into book covers. Others nerd out over typography or book design. And most of us can spend hours just looking at antiquarian volumes.

 

One of the quirkiest aspects of books is the addition of endpapers, or free end papers. With few exceptions, endpapers are not actually part of the printed book. In most cases, they are double leaves that are added to the front and the back of the volume by the bookbinder. The outer leaf of each is pasted to the inside surface of the book cover and the inner leaves form the first and last pages of the book when it’s bound.

Up until the 17th century, books very rarely had end papers. During the latter part of the century, it became fashionable for binders to add elaborate, marbled endpapers. By the 19th century, it was common to find endpapers made-up of illustrations, maps, colorful papers, publisher’s advertisements, or even silk. Many modern books have wonderfully designed endpapers that often demonstrate contemporary styles in art and design.

 

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New York City: Word on the Street

Posted on July 11, 2019 by Brian D. Butler

 

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Literary Houses

Posted on July 10, 2019 by Brian D. Butler

I have been a huge fan of British artist Su Blackwell’s  work for many years. Many of her projects involve recycling books into works of art. I recently stumbled across a wonderful older project of her’s called “Literary Houses.”

Blackwell recreated the homes of respected women writers of the 19th century, such as  Jane Austen, Daphne Du Maurier, and Charlotte Brontë. The amazing sculptural paper houses were created from pages of the authors’ most famous books.

The project was inspired by a series of articles in the Guardian titled  “Writer’s Rooms,” offering a peak into the process involved in creating some of Britain’s most beloved books. Blackwell wrote:

This made me think about the homes of famous women writers, homes that have now become museums, where we can go to pay homage to these writers, with the hope that their homes will imbue us with inspiration, or enable us a glimpse into their world.

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Jean Paul Sartre Comic (part deux)

Posted on July 9, 2019 by Brian D. Butler

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Happy Reading

Posted on July 8, 2019 by Brian D. Butler

 

 

Happy Reading is publisher Penguin’s new advertising campaign celebrating the special   relationship that forms between a reader and the books they’ve treasured over the years. Happy Reading consists of a series of posters that feature the well-read, and well-loved Penguin Classics cherished by writers,artists, musicians, and readers in general. Most of have well-loved books with dog-eared pages, coffee stains, cracked spines, and personal notes.

 

 

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All Good Books Are Alike

Posted on July 7, 2019 by Brian D. Butler
“All good books are alike in that they are truer than if they had really happened and after you are finished reading one you will feel that all that happened to you and afterwards it all belongs to you: the good and the bad, the ecstasy, the remorse and sorrow, the people and the places and how the weather was.”

— Ernest Hemingway

 

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Bookstore Tourism: Las Vegas

Posted on July 6, 2019 by Brian D. Butler

When I think about bookstore tourism, Las Vegas is not the first place that comes to mind. In fact, the last time that I was in Vegas—about a decade ago—there wasn’t an indie bookshop to be found. That changed in 2014 when a pair of book-loving friends founded the Writer’s Block Bookshop in Downtown Las Vegas. Earlier this year the struggling store was forced to close, but the good news is that it has re-opened in a brand new location. With the help of the Rogers Foundation, the Writer’s Block is back better than ever in a larger space that occupies a corner of the mixed-use development called Lucy. Located at 6th and Bonneville, the indie shop also boasts a coffeeshop and an arts space too. I’m looking forward to visiting on my next visit to Sin City.

 

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The Original Swiss Trip

Posted on July 5, 2019 by Brian D. Butler

Brooklyn-based comic artist Brian Blomerth has released his debut graphic novel titled Bicycle Day. The technicolor confection recounts the infamous day in April 1943 when Swiss chemist Albert Hoffmann dropped the first dose of LSD. After injesting 250 micrograms of lysergic acid diethylamide, Hoffmann rode his bicycle home from his job at Sandoz Pharmaceutical lab in Basel, Switzerland.

Most psychedelic enthusiasts are familiar with the legendary events that Hoffmann  recorded in his journal and later memoir. Blomerth’s wildly colorful and entertaining graphic novel follows a human/dog hybrid version of the young chemist as he experiences the world’s first acid trip. You can find out more about the project, and see the eye-popping artwork at the Anthology publishers website.

 

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