Wurlitzer's "Flats/Quake" has arrived!

Rudolph Wurlitzer's "Flats/Quake" has arrived in our store! I can't be the only one excited about this.

Flats is a post-apocalyptic exploration of the human self. Submerged amidst a cast of faceless characters named after ruined American cities who compete over a shrinking fringe of space, Flats is a modern masterpiece of the counterculture.

Quake chronicles the unraveling of society after an earthquake strikes ’60s Los Angeles. By painting a bleak picture of what people are capable of doing to one another in extreme circumstances, Quakeis nihilistic and haunting, as well as uncomfortably foreboding. And more relevant than ever.

This edition of Flats + Quake features a new introduction from noted critic and writer Michael Greenberg (Hurry Down Sunshine).

Two novels for the price of one! $17 order w/ us

Tezuka!

I highly recommend his Black Jack series.

Unfilmable Books

Interesting article on the new Where The Wild Things Are movie, and its theory that there is no 'unfilmable books'.

books i'd like to see made into a movie:

Jimmy Corrigan by Chris Ware
Log of the S.S. the Mrs Unguentine by Stanley Crawford
On The Road by Kerouac
Geek Love by Katherine Dunn
The Black Jack series by Osamu Tezuka

also, any work of poetry, namely

Lunch Poems
Leaves of Grass
Howl
Dream Songs (Berryman)
etc...

Can anyone name a movie based on a book of poetry?

Book Cover Archive

For those of you who happen to judge books by their covers, i've got some eye candy for you! Check out the Book Cover Archive. They also have a blog that I read on a weekly basis. Go.

Store News

Due to the confusing parking situation on Harvard Street, the used book buyers will NOT be able to come out to your car to look at books. If ya'll are sitting at home and you feel like you have too many books to carry down the stairs, please call or come in to speak with one of us so that we can help you weed out the stuff we don't buy. We apologize for any inconvenience. Also, we did not institute this parking situation, so don't be all mad at us and stuff.

here is a list of what we DO NOT buy

textbooks
books with underlining or highlighting
hardcover fiction & mystery
audio books
travel guides
advanced reader copies
computer programming books
magazines
books without covers
books ripped in half
phone books
lamps*

_________________
* yes, someone once brought us a lamp. and phonebooks.

Jim Shepard Has A Posse

new Jim Shepard essay on the new Outlet blog

also, new JS short story in the new Mcsweeney's.

The Long Way Around To A Shortcut

interesting article in the New York Times re: Vooks.

“Susan Katz, publisher of HarperCollins Children’s Books, predicted that “there is going to be a popular kind of literature where the author is seen as the leader of a large group and will pick and choose from these suggestions” by readers.

Wait. What? So authors will be glorified project managers? I can see books being more like Choose Your Own Adventure stories or like Cortazar's Hopscotch, but not where's there's, say, like a conference in a Marriott and everyone sits around and says "all in favor of killing off the younger brother say 'yay'" and they all yell 'yay!' and turn to a giant video screen where the author is seen taking notes and he looks up and says "done and done, amigos!" and they all applaud and go home and a month later they all buy the book and complain that the ending was awful and so in subsequent later printings they keep tinkering with the plot, killing off various characters until they get it right, like cooking a stew, and thereby producing The Perfect Book (which still doesn't sell all that well and ends up being remaindered and sold in discount stores for $3.99). Actually that sounds sort of fun.

via Powell's blog...

Bicycle Diaries by David Byrne, reviewed by The Oregonian

order a copy via booksmith

Does Reading Something Other Than A Game's Instruction Manual Count?

Move over, Wii -- Electronic book readers poised to become this holiday's hot ticket

"With digital, people tend to buy more books," Smythe said. "It's easier, often cheaper, and you can get it right away."

Someone needs to start a used e-book store as a gag. It would just be a dude with a laptop, an amazon account, and a fistful of usb cables. Ha! At least the condition would always be described as NM/VG+. There would also be the obligatory signed first edition--signed of course, with an electronic encryption code and accessed with a pin number. The store would be called "Not E-Nuff E-Books" or something to that effect. At any rate...

book titles that would seemingly make great video games:

Don't Lets Go To The Dogs Tonight
Pitching My Tent
Another Bullshit Night In Suck City
On The Road
Op Loop
A Shock To The System
When Bad Stuff Happens To Good People
Hammer Of The Gods
Indesign CS4 For Dummies

Move over, Wii -- Electronic book readers poised to become this holiday's hot ticket

Move over, Wii -- Electronic book readers poised to become this holiday's hot ticket

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File Under 'H' for Huh?!

Insta-book machine to debut in Boston today with E.L. Doctorow's help

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Does anyone know if these things can print up small press books? Or is it solely determined by what Google has in their database. I like the idea of having these in areas where bookstores aren't as plentiful. Maybe even in airports or malls. But in bookstores? I don't know. Print me up a copy of War & Peace and some Garfield books. I'll be back in a billion hours.

wurlitzer worship / pynchon puncher

I am a huge Wurlitzer fan. When a customer asks me for a recommendation, I hand then either Nog or Drop Edge of Yonder. Sure they don't always take my advice. At the very least the Wurlitzer seed was implanted in their memory. The above video is the author himself reading from his first novel Nog recently reprinted by the excellent Two Dollar Radio*. This is the novel that punched Thomas Pynchon in the jaw.
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* We here at Brookline Booksmith are one of the few (maybe the only) stores to stock Two Dollar Radio's books! Don't quote me on that. Support independent publishers!

some great cover scans from poland over at Journey Round My Skull

the seekers

Join the Biblio Book Hunt

Join the Biblio Book Hunt

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Seneca's Oedipus adapted by Ted Hughes
1969 Doubleday Paperback
illustrated by Reginald Pollack

Ted Hughes's raw dream
translation of the classic
Sophocles drama.

Sorry Sylvia,
but the Bell Jar needed these
types of drawings, too.

$20.00

Poems by Nazim Hikmet
1954 Masses & Mainstream Paperback

His poems were smuggled
out of prison, so i guess
I shouldn't complain.

------

"And not because of
arterio-sclerosis
or nicotine, or..."

from Angina Pectoris
$11.00

Pot Shots by Michael Stepanian
w/ illustrations by R. Crumb! 1972, Delta Books Paperback

the "R" in R Crumb
does not stand for reefer. That,
I learned from this book.
------
We do not condone
the use of marijuana
[while reading this blog].
"Pot Shots is the only book on the law, civil rights, and the use of marijuana. With vigor and persuasion, the author demonstrates that our citizens, especially the young, are being victimized and alienated by over-zealous, repressive law enforcement activities that make them easy marks for arrest and harassment." - from back cover

$20.00