New Year's Book Resolutions: Manny

Been meaning to read this big fella since the Pevear/Volokhonsky translation hit in October of 2007. That's a lot of procrastination. I'm telling the whole internet that 2012 is the year.

New Year's Book Resolutions: Emily

Whenever I think of reading "Don Quixote" by Miguel De Cervantes I feel like J. Alfred Prufrock ("'Do I dare?" and 'Do I dare?'"). But, since almost every Spanish language writer seems to write in the shadow of Cervantes, (Borges' "Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote," made me want to read it more than anything), it's time to stop being such a Prufrock, eat the peach, unroll my trousers, and shut those damn mermaids up.

New Year's Book Resolutions: Dustin

I resolve to read "Save the Cat" whether or not this will be the year I write my my million dollar big time movie script is still a subject of debate. Book first, movie maybe next year.

New Year's Resolutions: Tosh

In true form, when asked to name a book he always meant to read, Tosh replied with a book that doesn't exist yet:

Morrissey's Upcoming Memoir

It hasn't been officially announced yet, but it will come. Morrissey wrote a memoir and Penguin Classics will be publishing it. Sometime either the end of this year or the beginning of the next year. Without a doubt this book will be a classic, due to Morrissey's character and very strong opinions on the pop music world, animal rights, politics, but also his very special sensibility that makes him one-of-a-kind. The fact that his written words will be part of the Penguin Classic series is a perfect marriage.


After a bit more urging, Tosh also provided a book that you can buy at Book Soup:

"The White Album" by Joan Didion

By all concern a classic book on non-fiction writing and one I have never read. First of all I always thought it was clever to name this book "The White Album." It is sort of like taking the Beatles thunder and making it into your own lightning. Also being bred and born in Los Angeles it is the essential book for a citizen to read - but again, it is something I have passed on and I am not sure why?

Yet the book lingers on my brain, and I actually even bought it, but I have put it off like a fantastic dessert that you are saving yourself for. I don't know if "The White Album" is that dessert, yet it lingers on my brain and I do see it in front of me as I write.

New Year's Book Resolutions

New Year’s Book Resolutions 2012:

Who needs to lose weight when there are books to be read? Certainly not the employees of Book Soup. If you are like us, you are haunted by the books that you haven’t read. Looming over your nightstand, taunting you from bookstore shelves, leering at you from the hands of attractive people at cafes—Who are these people reading interesting books at cafes? Are they really so attractive or is it just the allure of seeming to know more than you know? And if you had read The Master and Margarita, for instance, would you have some opening salvo, some witticism to offer that would translate into a lasting, fulfilling relationship?—Anyway, in these coming weeks, the employees of Book Soup will be bringing you the books they always wanted to read, always meant to read, and this year will definitely read. If you, dear reader, read these books, then you will impress all the attractive people at cafes that you want.

From Dan, our Assistant Store Manager:

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami

I have never read Murakami. I find him intimidating, but I am ready to do it. This is the year! My hand is shaking. Is the room spinning?

"The Map and the Territory" by Michel Houellebnecq

TUESDAY, JANUARY 3, 2012

"The Map and the Territory" by Michel Houellebecq

His best novel.  The themes are basically the same, but Michel Houellebecq tells the tale again with great energy and in a large tongue in cheek manner.  On one level it is about the rise of an artist who doesn't really want to participate in the art market.  He has nothing against it, but his character is not one where he follows the market place.  Yet he's extremely successful in what he does.  The other textual parts are Houellebecq's fascination with what people do on their 'free' time - the need to be a tourist in 21st Century life as well as the issue of aging, fame, and the beauty of maps.  in many ways, of all his novels, this is the most Situationist like.  Houellebecq is for sure not Guy Debord, but he shares his sense of love (disgust?) at looking at culture and what that means to an artist/writer as well

There are major plot turns that makes this narrative into a policer.  The twists in the plot makes this a really fun read.  "The Map and the Territory" is the best novel of the year and its January 3, 2012.


Old BBC interview in English


Iggy Pop and Michel Houellebecq


"Paris" by Michel Houellebecq and Bertrand Burgalat


Houellebecq pop singer 4:33

Staff Gift Recommendations: The Conference of the Birds

The Conference of the Birds by Peter Sis
Another beautiful, beautiful book -- a graphic adaption of a very old Sufi folktale, in which a group of birds undertake an epic journey to find their king. Though Sufism is the mystical branch of Islam, this parable about the search for God could and should be looked at through a philosophical as well as spiritual lens. Peter Sis is an award-winning children's book illustrator and his talents are on full, glorious display here. Put that in your Kindle and smoke it!

- Emily

Staff Gift Recommendations: Radioactive: Marie & Pierre Curie

Radioactive: Marie & Pierre Curie: A Tale of Love and Fall-Out by Lauren Redniss
One of the most unique books in the store. A graphic biography of the famous scientists that celebrates their romance and life's work with every detail, down to the glow-in-the-dark cover (get it?). The pages are printed using a method called cyanotype, which produces vibrant, colorful images that fade with extended exposure to light and restore themselves when covered. The author's love for and dedication to her subject matter bursts from the page-- she invented her own typeface and even included gravestone rubbings. This book proves that Kindles could never replace books.

- Emily

Staff Gift Recommendations: Crass 1977-1984

Crass 1977-1984
For the music historian in your life - A look back on one of the greatest independent punk labels that ever was, Crass Records. From Andrew Roth's PPP Editions, Crass 1977-1984 : A large folio, bagged in mylar, exhibiting fifty-one pieces of Crass Records ephemera from the collection of punk archivist Toby Mott. If unfamiliar, Crass Records was extraordinary in its attempts and intention to politically move and affect society through carefully planned multi-media. Incorporating literature, film, music, and the now-iconic work of artist Gee Vaucher, in just eight short years, Crass Records left a legacy that's unlike anything else in music history.

- Rebekah

Staff Gift Recommendations: The Fifty Year Sword

The Fifty Year Sword by Mark Danielewski (Signed!)

Fans of Mark Danielewski’s House of Leaves, Only Revolutions, and The Whalestoe Letters rejoice! While you’re waiting for Danielewski’s much-anticipated serial novel, The Familiar due out in 2014, we have a treat for you: 14 signed copies of Danielewski’s The Fifty Year Sword! This extraordinary novella from 2005 is yet to be published in the U.S. and hasn’t been available in U.S. bookstores, but we have copies and they’re signed, and if you’re not familiar with this book, it’s beautiful. Illustrated with drawings by Peter van Sambeek, this is essentially a ghost story, but one clearly of Danielewski’s unique imagination and lyrical prose.

Great gift for Danielewski fans, House of Leaves fans, graphic novel fans, fans of ghost stories, and people who know a great book when they see it.

Treat yourself or make someone else very, very happy.

You can pick one up through our website here, in-store, or by calling Book Soup at (310) 659-3110