On this day that has so much meaning to so many, but which I am choosing to spend in a much simpler way, I thought I’d share the latest acquisition to the Butterflies & Aliens Library… call it a Christmas gift to myself, if you so choose…

The book is Labyrinth: An Existential Odyssey with Jean-Paul Sartre, a non-fiction graphic novel by Ben Argon, with an introduction by Gary Cox and afterword by Christine Daigle, and published by Abrams ComicArts.

The book found me as I was shelving books at my local indie bookstore, initially because it is a beautiful book as object… a beautiful heavy blue hardcover with white typography, complemented by black & white graphics that, as it turns out, is actually the endpaper artwork made visible by a diecut maze pattern…

As it turns out… as it often turns out… the book also turned out to be the right one to encounter just at this present moment.

So along with my best holiday wishes to you and yours, I share this bit of a spoiler from the book that I was happy to be reminded of as I sat back with my coffee and my book this fine morning…

“The world is different… if we’re different.”

Happy holidays and happy reading!

— Winston