Bookstore Tourism : Vancouver

Posted on November 3, 2018 by Brian D. Butler

I haven’t spent as much time as I’d like in Vancouver, but the last time that I passed through I managed to pop-in at some of the city’s best bookstores. Fortunately, Travel Between The Pages follower Markus H. sent us a post on some of his favorite literary haunts.

Macleod’s Books on West Pender Street is a labyrinthine treasure trove for book lovers in downtown Vancouver. There are thousands of secondhand, collectible, and antiquarian titles literary spilling off the crowded shelves and piled everywhere throughout the packed bookshop. If you go, be prepared to devote hours to browsing.

Kestrel Books is a beloved community institution in beautiful laid-back Kitsilano that stocks everything from “Archie comics to medieval manuscripts” and more. When you visit, you will know why it has been named the “Best used Bookstore” in Vancouver more than once. Be sure to say hi to Ruby the bookstore cat.

Just up the street from Kestrel. Banyen Books and Sound has been the place to go in Vancouver for books on spirituality, philosophy, religion, music, and art for nearly 50 years.

Tanglewood Books is another Kitsilano favorite for secondhand and hard to find out-of-print titles. There’s a great selection in every imaginable genre from art to zoology. You’ll quickly see why it has been a “Best in Vancouver” winner.

Canterbury Tales Bookstore has been a fixture in East Vancouver’s Drive community for more than 20 years. It’s a great choice for used books, but they also offer all new titles at a 30% discount. If Canterbury Tales doesn’t have what you’re looking for, they will order any title and still give you 30% off list.

The Paper Hound has only been around for about five years, but it has quickly built a devoted following due to the well curated selection of new, used, and collectible books. They are open daily in the heart of downtown.

Spartacus Books is a collectively run, politically oriented shop that focuses on progressive reading material and environmental action. Largely staffed by dedicated volunteers, the bookstore has a surprisingly good selection of titles on politics, art, philosophy, gender issues, poetry, and ecology. It’s a good place to find magazines and journals, and also to meet like-minded locals.

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Summer in Iceland

Posted on November 2, 2018 by Brian D. Butler

Each year, Ólafur Már Björnsson produces a video compilation based on his summer travels and hikes around his native Iceland. His photography covers some areas rarely seen by tourists and only accessible to serious backcountry hikers. This year’s video already has me planning my next trip to Iceland.

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Bram Stoker: Library Miscreant

Posted on November 1, 2018 by Brian D. Butler

I have been a fan of Bram Stoker’s creepy classic Dracula ever since my first reading as a child. Here in Philadelphia, we are fortunate to have a fascinating collection of Stoker’s notes for the book at the wonderful Rosenbach Museum and Library. But I was surprised to learn that in his background research work on the novel the author transgressed basic library etiquette.

Researchers at the London Library have used the author’s original notes and outline to pull books from the library’s collection that Stoker accessed during the 1880s. They have identified books that he defaced with annotations and underling. The video below describes some of the writer’s most appalling misuse of the texts. You can read more about Stoker’s misdemeanors at the London Library website.

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William S. Burroughs gets spooky

Posted on October 31, 2018 by Brian D. Butler

The Witches or Witchcraft Through the Ages, or Häxan, is a Swedish-Danish film that is a curious and groundbreaking mix of documentary and silent horror cinema, written and directed by Benjamin Christensen. Christensen’s vision was unique, basing his film on non-fiction works, mainly the Malleus Maleficarum, a 15th-century treatise on witchcraft he found in a Berlin bookshop, as well as a number of other manuscripts, books, illustrations and treatises on witches and witch-hunting . Häxan was envisaged, as stated in the opening credits, as a “presentation from a cultural and historical point of view in seven chapters of moving pictures”. While the film’s format is centered on its dramatic scenes portrayed by actors, the first chapter, lasting 13 minutes, is a different story. With its documentary style and scholarly tone — featuring a number of photographs of statuary, paintings, and woodcuts — it would have been entirely novel — a style of screened illustrated lecture which wouldn’t become popular till many years later. Reportedly the most expensive film of the Swedish silent film era, Häxan was actually banned in the United States, and heavily censored in other countries. In 1968, an abbreviated version of the film was released. Titled Witchcraft Through the Ages, it featured an eclectic jazz score by Daniel Humair and dramatic narration by the always spooky and unnerving William S. Burroughs.

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A Halloween Thriller

Posted on October 30, 2018 by Brian D. Butler

Tom the Dancing Bug 1410 gaslight

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Word On The Street : NYC

Posted on October 29, 2018 by Brian D. Butler

H/t to artist Wilson Tseng for his new street art campaign to address the MAGA trash in our cities.

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Another Reason To Heart SF

Posted on October 28, 2018 by Brian D. Butler

Last week, eleven independent bookstores in San Francisco received a surprising gift—a no strings attached cash grant from the city. San Francisco city government, in partnership with the nonprofit Working Solutions, awarded a total of $103,000 to fund “revitalization” of the eleven shops. Along with the money, the indie bookstores will get assistance from the city to negotiate leasing deals, help with municipal services, technical assistance for marketing, and human resources development.

The lucky booksellers included the popular Green Apple Books, Dog Eared Books, Alley Cat Bookstore, and Stevens Books.

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Bram Stoker’s Dublin

Posted on October 27, 2018 by Brian D. Butler

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.

 

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The Writer’s Map

Posted on October 26, 2018 by Brian D. Butler

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.

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And the winner is…

Posted on October 25, 2018 by Brian D. Butler

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:

  1. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
  2. Outlander (series) by Diana Gabaldon
  3. Harry Potter (series) by J.K. Rowling
  4. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
  5. Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
  6. Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
  7. Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White
  8. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
  9. Chronicles of Narnia (series) by C.S. Lewis
  10. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
  11. Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
  12. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
  13. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
  14. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
  15. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
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