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Author Andrew Butters

@authorandrewbutters.substack.com
1.6K followers 773 following 1K posts

🇨🇦 (He/Him) I sometimes let my love of attention override common sense. I also write things and eat snacks. authorandrewbutters.substack.com

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Author Andrew Butters @authorandrewbutters.substack.com · 24/09/2026
One of the classes I'm teaching today is on safety. Hoooooo-boy, do I know a thing or two about that, eh? Anyway, here are the stairs I fell down when I was 4 because I thought putting my hooded one-piece snow suit on backwards was funny. Read all about it: authorandrewbutters.com/books/misfor...
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Author Andrew Butters @authorandrewbutters.substack.com · 23/08/2026
Ten years ago we all looked up to the Gord above and said, "Hey man, thanks." #TheHip 🇨🇦
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Author Andrew Butters @authorandrewbutters.substack.com · 31/05/2026
The story's origin story: open.substack.com/pub/authoran...
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Author Andrew Butters @authorandrewbutters.substack.com · 18/05/2026
Phase one mostly complete. Some kids starting a lawncare business are supposed to come by and weed the sides (not shown as it is bad), aerate, and seed, but we'll see of they show up. Don't worry, my backyard still looks like something out of Jumanji, so there are plenty of things for pollinators.
Split image of a front yard. Top is full of dandelions, bottom has none. Not shown in the image is the homeowner taking 1000mg of Tylenol after pulling two full yard bags full of weeds.
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Author Andrew Butters @authorandrewbutters.substack.com · 18/05/2026
I made a handrail!
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Author Andrew Butters @authorandrewbutters.substack.com · 09/05/2026
I'm going for an MRI (on my brain) this upcoming Wednesday. I booked my appointment through Temu. @hankgreen.bsky.social, should I be worried? Seriously, though, it's just so my neurologist can rule out some stuff, but I'm kinda freaking out.
An off-white cinder block wall has a piece of cardboard duct tape to it in the shape of the door. Above that is a box of some kind covered with green painters tape and the letters MRI written on it in pencil
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Author Andrew Butters @authorandrewbutters.substack.com · 30/04/2026
Canadian citizenship test: 1) Red, blue, and yellow are the primary _______. 2) What ingredients are in poutine? 3) What is this called?
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Author Andrew Butters @authorandrewbutters.substack.com · 26/04/2026
This is my #comfortfood right here. Taters, carrots, and onion cooked in a foil package on the grill, and a nice sirloin grilled to medium rare (or rare) sprinkled with Montreal steak seasoning. What's yours?
Cooked potatoes, carrots, and onions on a plate with a half a grilled sirloin steak sprinkled with Montreal steak seasoning. The plate is on a placement with pictures of wide-eyed curious cats. There is a fork and knife in their appropriate spots and a glass of water.
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Author Andrew Butters @authorandrewbutters.substack.com · 26/04/2026
Cooked potatoes, carrots, and onions on a plate with a half a grilled sirloin steak sprinkled with Montreal steak seasoning. The plate is on a placement with pictures of wide-eyed curious cats. There is a fork and knife in their appropriate spots and a glass of water.
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Author Andrew Butters @authorandrewbutters.substack.com · 04/04/2026
I don't have a lot of hair, so this bottle has lasted me more than a year (I also don't wash my hair every day). Keep the focus North of the border, neighbours. Buy Canadian. #ElbowsUp 💪🇨🇦 #Never51
Shampoo bottle from The Unscented Company. A red maple leaf is in the top left corner of the frame.
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Author Andrew Butters @authorandrewbutters.substack.com · 29/03/2026
I'd love it if those who see this would head over to #Substack to check it out. open.substack.com/pub/authoran...
A girl standing on the corner of a deck in a modified tree pose on a beach overlooking some water at sunset.
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Author Andrew Butters @authorandrewbutters.substack.com · 28/03/2026
My mom, then 78, got her first gig in show business as First Assistant Director on a short film, and along with eight other seniors, became the focus of a documentary about the project. It hits the Hot Docs festival next weekend. I’m so proud of her! torontostar.pressreader.com/1038/2026032...
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Author Andrew Butters @authorandrewbutters.substack.com · 28/03/2026
This is me and two of my cabin mates in 1990, age 16, at a church summer camp event. I'm the one on the right. Apologies to hula dancers everywhere. Those were different times.
Three teenage boys with colorful beach towels around their waists worn like skirts, in bikini tops, doing a hula dance in front of a wood-paneled wall.
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Author Andrew Butters @authorandrewbutters.substack.com · 26/03/2026
Donation 31! #GiveandGetAway with Canadian Blood Services AND if you buy my book, Bent But Not Broken, they'll get 50% of the royalties (Ronald McDonald House Canada gets the other 50%). authorandrewbutters.com/books/bent
Andrew Butters in a chair donating blood. He's got glasses, a beard, a black golf shirt, and blue jeans on. The tourniquet on his arm is blue. His blood is red.
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Author Andrew Butters @authorandrewbutters.substack.com · 26/03/2026
Remember: #ElbowsUp 💪🇨🇦 #Never51
Large penguin emoji with a red maple leaf on its chest. Above his head in all caps red letters are the words "if I had elbows" and below its feet in all caps red letters are the words "they'd be up"
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Author Andrew Butters @authorandrewbutters.substack.com · 21/03/2026
On an unseasonably warm day in March, 14 years go, I took this picture of my then 5-year-old son riding on two wheels for the first time since the previous October. I guess there really is something to the "it's like riding a #bike" saying.
Five year old boy riding a bike on a sidewalk in a suburb. The grass looks like snow has recently melted.
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Author Andrew Butters @authorandrewbutters.substack.com · 18/03/2026
Authors and other creatives, please feel free to share or use as you see fit. Images used were free and not generated by AI (from Freepik.com).
Outline of a brain that looks like its glowing in blue with a purple capital AI overplayed on top in the center. The AI has designs that reflect a computer inside. Overlaid on the AI is a red circle with a diagonal line through it from top left to bottom right. The circle and line have red diagonal hash marks and not a complete red fill. The words "There's a reason we call it brainstorming" are across the top on two lines in a white dotted font, except the word "brain" is bigger and in a cursive-looking font with the same glowing blue colour as the brain.
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Author Andrew Butters @authorandrewbutters.substack.com · 27/02/2026
Rest in peace, Nacho. 💔
A fat tabby cat with black and white accents lying seductively on a hardwood floor at the base of a large living room chair. The cat has a small toy that looks like a taco between her paws.
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Author Andrew Butters @authorandrewbutters.substack.com · 31/01/2026
@city-of-saint-john.bsky.social on Feb. 8, I will be in town at The Write Cup Bookstore Café from 1-4 p.m., reading from two of my books and signing whatever you want, even, and especially, if it's a @jamesmullinger.bsky.social book (I hear they're worth more if someone else signs them).
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Author Andrew Butters @authorandrewbutters.substack.com · 12/12/2025
They are doing wonderfully!
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Author Andrew Butters @authorandrewbutters.substack.com · 04/12/2025
Original art postcard by Carol Bloomgarden made for KNOWN ORDER GIRLS. As of right now, +1 postcard will be included with your order and pre-addressed to me. I am collecting them from all over the world! potatochipmath.com/store/postca... potatochipmath.com/store/postca... potatochipmath.com/kog/
Watercolor painting of a vague notion of grass and sky, with defined orchids and other colorful pink, red and yellow flowers with a singular bee flying toward the group of 5 flowers.
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Author Andrew Butters @authorandrewbutters.substack.com · 03/08/2025
Found on the shores of the St. Lawrence. I opened it and found the most adorable note. "I wish for the best grade 1 teacher". I am guessing it either made it from up river, or it was dropped in the water by a tourist. We need the internet to work its magic and find out who made the wish. Go!
Small glass bottle with a cork stopper being held between a thumb and forefinger. In the bottle is a green rolled up piece of paper with a tiny gold band around it. In the background is a wet sand and rock beach.Hand holding a small slip of green paper with "I wish for the best grade 1 teacher" written on it. In the background is a wet sand and rock beach and a black shoe with rainbow laces.
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Author Andrew Butters @authorandrewbutters.substack.com · 20/07/2025
Passed this lovely sculpture on our walk to the ice cream shop.
A garden with purple flowered shrubs and grass and trees in the background. In the foreground is a sculpture with big green leaves lighter purple flowers and a big monarch butterfly on top
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Author Andrew Butters @authorandrewbutters.substack.com · 02/07/2025
Found this "little" spider in the bathroom up at the cabin.
Dark fishing spider in the bottom of a Solo cup.
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Author Andrew Butters @authorandrewbutters.substack.com · 08/06/2025
Built a new Little Free Library. Just needs paint and some books!
Square wood box with a square hole in the middle and an overhanging roof with a wavy border.
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Author Andrew Butters @authorandrewbutters.substack.com · 14/05/2025
Art feeds the soul and should only be created by those with one.
Rainbow "The More You Know" logo with yellow star in the bottom right. A red translucent rectangle overlayed on a larger blurred logo in the center. Inside the rectangle in white text: Art feeds the soul and should only be created by those with one.
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Author Andrew Butters @authorandrewbutters.substack.com · 08/05/2025
Sometimes, the right class comes along at the right time. I've been feeling kind of down lately. Tired. Frustrated. Low value. I was teaching a grade five class today that I had not taught before, so walking into the school this morning there was a certain amount of uncertainty hanging in the air. 

I sat at the desk and read the lesson plan and oriented myself with the things I would need in the classroom. I put the chairs down. I sat and waited for the students to arrive, and when they did it was the most wonderful thing. 

They came in one by one, laughing, giggling, and with a spring in their step. They didn't even pay much attention to me in the corner behind the desk. Some sat quietly while others read a book. There was some conversation but it was at a very reasonable volume and no one was out of their seat. It was the most organized and respectful beginning to class I've seen. I introduced myself and told them how impressed I was with how they started their day, and that if the whole day was like this, they would end up being the best class I'd ever had. Well, they were like that for the entire day. They were not perfect, I think that is an unreal expectation to put on anyone let alone an 11-year-old, but when I asked them for their attention I got it, when I asked them to quiet down they quieted down, and when I asked them to be better they were better. 

Before the last period of the day, where they were to work on some science posters they were creating on the respiratory system, I sat on a stool in front of the class told them how proud I was of the way they conducted themselves today. I told them that I had been feeling kind of low, not having the greatest days lately, how I am normally the one trying to make a positive impact on their day, and today they had a positive impact on mine. Many of them looked very proud, as they should have. I left them a glowing note for their teacher and told Admin as well.
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Author Andrew Butters @authorandrewbutters.substack.com · 07/05/2025
I am a big GenAI hater! My non-AI stuff: authorandrewbutters.com/books/ My New Year's Plea: open.substack.com/pub/authoran...
Rainbow coloured The More You Know logo with yellow five-pointed star in the bottom right. Overlayed is a translucent red rectangle with "Art feeds the soul and should only be created by those with one." in white text inside.
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Author Andrew Butters @authorandrewbutters.substack.com · 21/04/2025
Thirteen years ago my daughter was 9 and my son 5 and his birthday was approaching. Daughter was going to make a toy car for his birthday and was doing research. She asks, "How many gifts would you want if someone made them for you?" His reply, "Just one. It wouldn't even matter what it was."
An orange box-shaped truck made out of balsa wood with black, hard plastic tires sitting on a dark wood coffee table.
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Author Andrew Butters @authorandrewbutters.substack.com · 17/04/2025
@electmikeingram.bsky.social we MUST know how you feel about Peeps. Also:
Picture of a 3-pack of candy corn flavored Peeps
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Author Andrew Butters @authorandrewbutters.substack.com · 29/03/2025
Cover reveal! Read it as a serial for FREE on Substack. Paid subs get installments 3 weeks in advance and a fully formatted ebook at the end. Every installment includes a PDF as well as numbered shortcuts to all previous installments so you can get caught up. open.substack.com/pub/authoran...
Top center: ANDREW BUTTERS in white with faint red outline

Bottom left justified in much larger font:
NO
FIXED 
ADDRESS in black that transitions down to red. The words have a faint white glow.

Background: a concourse with pipes and conduit. Everything has a red hue to it with a glow emanating out from the center in a horizontal bar
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Author Andrew Butters @authorandrewbutters.substack.com · 27/03/2025
New Brunswick
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Author Andrew Butters @authorandrewbutters.substack.com · 27/03/2025
New Brunswick
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Author Andrew Butters @authorandrewbutters.substack.com · 23/03/2025
Beaver lodge! 🇨🇦🦫
Picture of a pond with sparse forest in the background and melting ice on the water with a beaver lodge in the middle.
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Author Andrew Butters @authorandrewbutters.substack.com · 16/03/2025
A picture of the sun taken with a solar filter in the middle of a circle of other pictures of the sun during various stages of an eclipse.
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Author Andrew Butters @authorandrewbutters.substack.com · 18/02/2025
Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers. Day 19
It's an old school black hardcover. The text is stamped gold letters not real gold though and in all caps reads at the top 

The Strange Case of 
Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
Robert Louis Stevenson 

and underneath that a drawing of a man and a suit jacket standing over a table top covered with Miles and potions standing above the man our threads of gold that we've into an amorphous blob above him. Almost like a cloud that is using man as a marionette.
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Author Andrew Butters @authorandrewbutters.substack.com · 17/02/2025
Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers. Day 18
A white cover with a brilliantly colored drawing of a round shaped hot air balloon. The main balloon is shades of blue and blue green and it almost looks like the Earth as seen from space. Across the middle is a thin orange and yellow stripe with a thick blue stripe underneath it. Through the middle of the blue stripe is the word alligator written in a fancy all caps font and red with flex of Orange. Below that is a multicolored stripe with flag designs and a pink oval with an all caps word pie in the middle of it. There are flags hanging off the ropes that hold up the basket. In the basket is an alligator a young girl a young boy and a Canadian mountie with a spyglass. A blue flag Trails off the basket with the words in script, poems by Dennis Lee. Below that a pink flag with the words and script, pictures by Frank neufeld. The basket has gold colored sandbags hanging off of it, four of them, and is colored with a thick black stripe and a thinner blue stripe and a thinner Green Stripe underneath that centered on the basket is a red maple leaf.
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Author Andrew Butters @authorandrewbutters.substack.com · 17/02/2025
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Author Andrew Butters @authorandrewbutters.substack.com · 17/02/2025
Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers. Day 17
Cred touring motorcycle sits just to the right of Center on a deserted Road. There is no one on the motorcycle. To the left and right are fields of green and brown vegetation laying close to the ground and in the distance are brown Hills. The sky is blue with white whiskey clouds and as you look higher the clouds dominate the scene and change color that's almost copper like. The title of the book is at the top and white all caps font, Ghost Rider, with a lowercase i and the last "R" with a fancy bit. The author's name is in all lowercase and a smaller font than the title, the bottom it reads Neil Peart.
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Author Andrew Butters @authorandrewbutters.substack.com · 15/02/2025
Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers. Day 16
A black and white picture of Richard Feynman, with longish hair and a goofy smirk on his face. He's wearing a white dress short unbuttoned at the top with no tie, a thin black belt, and grey pants. One hand is in his pocket the other has his thumb hooked into the bocket with his four fingers on his thigh. Behind him is a chalkboard and under the chalkboard is a shelf with some papers and under that is another shelf with a black rotary dial phone and some more papers. In yellow right justified text overlaid on the chalkboard is:
"Surely 
You're Joking, 
Mr. Feynman."
Below that in one line and smaller white all caps font: ADVENTURES OF A CURIOUS CHARACTER
Below that, in small yellow mixed case font: Introduction by
Below that in all caps yellow and slightly bigger: BILL GATES
At the bottom of the cover in a greenish all caps font slightly bigger than BILL GATES and on one line is the author's name: RICHARD P. FEYNMAN
Under that, in white, small, mixed case font on a single line:
"Funny, brilliant, lovely... enormously entertaining."-The New Yorker
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Author Andrew Butters @authorandrewbutters.substack.com · 13/02/2025
Grammar police are not welcome wherever I am.
A screenshot of a Facebook comment and reply. The commenter's name and profile picture are blocked out with a red line and red circle respectively. The comment reads, "Not to be contrary but if you are an educator, you ought to know better ways to use the English language. Rule one is to never end a sentence with a preposition. The first sentence should have been: Every middle school where I subbed."

The reply is from Author Andrew Butters. His name is not blocked out and his profile picture (a portrait of him sitting, wearing a purple sport coat and grey shirt on a bright yellow background). His reply reads, "[Name crossed out with a red line] Yours is exactly the type of comment up with which I will not put. As such, please self-fornicate elsewhere."
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Author Andrew Butters @authorandrewbutters.substack.com · 11/02/2025
Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers. Day 15 @chuckwendig.bsky.social
A dark sky of blue and green filled with wispy clouds Fades to White and then orange towards the horizon as we see a Setting Sun casting a silhouette on a lone figure walking down a country road. To the left stands a water tower with a flag on top of it. The words Wanderers is repeated on different lines fading in from a white font to Gray and then black in the center of the cover. Beneath the black Wanderers title is the author's name in red, Chuck wendig. Underneath that in black and a different font Newark times bestselling author. Above the silhouetted person and in the clouds are the words in white, a novel.
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Author Andrew Butters @authorandrewbutters.substack.com · 10/02/2025
Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers. Day 14
A portrait of a man with short disheveled dark hair and bushy eyebrows and huge mutton chop sideburns. He wears a worried look. His eyes are brown and he's wearing an overcoat that looks like it's made of leather and under that a white shirt that's rumpled and collar askew.
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Author Andrew Butters @authorandrewbutters.substack.com · 08/02/2025
Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers. Day 13
#1 BESTSELLER at the top in small white font. 

STEPHEN
KING
in red. Big font with smudges and smears around the first couple letters of the first and last name.

A black and white scene underneath the author's name of a bunch of dead bodies lying on a stretch of deserted road.

THE
STAND
in white. All caps. Thin font. STAND is much bigger than THE.
At the bottom in red, small all caps font, COMPLETE AND UNCUT EDITION.
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Author Andrew Butters @authorandrewbutters.substack.com · 06/02/2025
@thisone0verhere.bsky.social, I was substitute teaching today and rooting around for an eraser on the teacher's desk and found this!
A teacher's desk with a peach coloured organizer for pencils and markers and other teacher accoutrements. A couple of black binders sit off to the right. On top of a blue stamp it's a cutout of a white piece of paper with a pencil drawing of a rabbit on it. Barley is growing out of the rabbits eyes. The rabbit is from the cover of the novel Winterset Hollow by Jonathan Edward Durham
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Author Andrew Butters @authorandrewbutters.substack.com · 05/02/2025
Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers. Day 12 @gavinmcdougald.bsky.social
A brilliant yellow sun makes silhouettes out of space objects like a moon and asteroids. There is a dust cloud at the top. The title of the book, the long watch, appears in the upper left portion, words stacked on top of each other and in mixed case font. The letters are white with a thin black outline. Near the bottom of the book is the author's name, Gavin mcdougald. Also in white with a very thin black outline but much smaller than the title of the book
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Author Andrew Butters @authorandrewbutters.substack.com · 04/02/2025
Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers. Day 11
A black cover background. Centered from the bottom and taking up 3/4 of the height and another 3/4 of the width is a simple drawing of a woman's dress in two-tone red. It has a wide bottom. On the woman's head is a white Hood obscuring her face. In front of the white hood is a single white dot. Overlaying the center of the woman's dress is the title of the book, the handmaid's tale, and all caps and simple white lettering. At the top of the book in white lettering, small, other words the number one worldwide bestseller in all caps. Below that in larger letters, also all cops, also in white, is the author, Margaret atwood. The name Atwood is underneath the name Margaret and also bigger.
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Author Andrew Butters @authorandrewbutters.substack.com · 03/02/2025
Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers. Day 10
A black cover with the top half diagonally a golden color with wisps of black through it like a cloud of interstellar gas. A white tether winds its way from the top left corner to the center where a picture of a man and a space suit floats. The author's name is in all caps and very large at the top, Andy Weir, underneath that in smaller text all caps is author of The Martian. There's a gray sticker center right that reads with black text number one New York Times bestseller. Centered below the floating space man is the word project in all caps but in smaller text below that is the title of the book, Hail Mary also in all caps and large font in the case of the author's name and the book title the A's are triangles.
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Author Andrew Butters @authorandrewbutters.substack.com · 02/02/2025
Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you. One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order. No explanations, no reviews, just covers. Day 9
The background of the book cover is red (top 80%), then a not quite white line that divides the bottom 20% which is a dark brown. The not quite white line forms the outline of a circle in the center and it it is filled with brown and the numbers 451 in red. In the brown bottom section is the author's name, Ray Bradbury, in all caps and red. At the top on the red background, in white and all caps on a single line is "60th ANNIVERSARY EDITION". underneath that is a box of matches laying flat but on an angle and it's open so the top ⅓ of the matches are visible. The bottom of the matchbox is made to look like a book with a little bookmark sticking out. The match heads are red and the matchbox is brown and slightly off white, same as the match sticks. Under the matchbox is the word FAHRENHEIT in all caps and the same not quite white.
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Author Andrew Butters @authorandrewbutters.substack.com · 01/02/2025
A small white and brown cat stairs into the camera with its tongue sticking out. It is sitting in a cat bed the interior of which is leopard print and the exterior is a light brown. There is a beige wall behind her.
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