The last weekend in October has become the best time to visit Dublin each year since the advent of the Bram Stoker Festival and Halloween Parade seven years ago. The festivities always include a spectacular costumed parade, theatrical performances, musical events, literary walking tours, a Victorian fair, special museum shows, horror film screenings, and all things Dracula.
Just published, The Writer’s Map is a marvelous atlas of literary journeys made by authors. The book explores maps that inspired literary works as well as examples of cartography from famous works of fiction and film.
Daniel Reeve recounts his creation of maps for Peter Jackson’s Hobbit movies. Philip Pullman recalls his cartography for his novels. David Mitchell writes about his Mappa Mundi for Cloud Atlas. Robert Macfarlene explores Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island map.
The book also analyzes the “Marauder’s Map” from the Harry Potter series and the importance of Norse maps in old texts.
Harper Lee’s classic novel To Kill a Mockingbird was chosen by voters as America’s #1 best-loved novel in “The Great American Read.” The viewers’ voting results were revealed Tuesday night on PBS during the final episode of the eight-part television series and nationwide campaign, which examined the power of books and the joy of reading through the lens of America’s 100 best-loved novels, as voted on by the public.
To Kill a Mockingbird led “The Great American Read” voting from the start, and maintained its advantage over the months of polling, despite strong competition from the five book finalists. Lee’s novel was also at the top of the list of votes in every state except North Carolina (which preferred Outlander) and Wyoming (Lord of The Rings). More than 4 million votes were cast. The top 15 titles were:
You may have noticed that I am a huge fan of Tom Gauld’s brilliant comics. This week, he released a brand new book of fifty postcards of his best literary cartoons titled The Snooty Bookshop.
h/t Tom Gauld
Just in time for Halloween, the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library in Toronto has opened De Monstris, an exhibition exploring the long cultural tradition of frightening monsters that inflamed imaginations and triggered irrational fears throughout history. De Monstris examines scary illustrations and writings from ancient Greece through the early 20th century. The exhibition features both infamous and obscure imaginary creatures, such as unicorns, sea serpents, mermaids, dragons, basilisks, and human animal hybrids. The show, which runs until December 21, 2018, includes writings about monstrous creatures from Aristotle to Mary Shelley, and Pliny the Elder to Robert Louis Stevenson.
h/t AJ Lavilla
Eight years ago, author Neil Gaiman suggested a new holiday tradition to celebrate Halloween and All Hallow’s Read was born. The concept is simple: The week leading up to Halloween, or on October 31st, give someone a scary book. You can also celebrate by giving away scary comics or books to trick-or-treaters.
h/t to Ruth Gardner for this post
Situated on an old cattle ranch down a dusty dirt road just north of Benson, Arizona, the Singing Wind Bookshop may be the loneliest bookstore in America. Founded and still run by 88 year-old Winn Bundy, the shop celebrated its 44th anniversary this year. Despite its rustic setting, the bookstore attracts book lovers from around the world with a rich collection of new, secondhand, collectible, and out-of-print titles. Located in a century-old ranch house, Singing Wind specializes in books on the Old West, Native Americans, nature, folklore, the Southwest, and children’s literature. The shop doesn’t have a website, so if you want to browse the collection you will have to take a trip to southeastern Arizona.
Travel Between The Pages 