Comparisons

I was cleaning my room recently and found a number of books I haven't touched in quite some time, Margherita Dolce Vita by Stefano Benni (who I've mentioned before) being one of them. Staring at the book made me think about its plot, characters and general form which Benni forced into my brain (the big, black, giant cube), when suddenly I couldn't stop of Montreal from playing loudly in my head; of Montreal's music somehow pinpoints the exact feel of Benni's story, its perfectness is uncanny.

Books, and literature in this specific case, can oftentimes transcend (for lack of better words) the means of its original presentation (i.e. book-->music, film-->book). Jean-Phillipe Toussaint's, Bathroom, can easily be compared to John Cage's 4'33. The narrator of, Bathroom, is excited by smallest of details due to where he is: the bathroom. Cage's piece is meant for the listener's experience to be based on the sounds occurring during the performance. Both are drastically affected by their surroundings. (The photo to the right is of Cage's performance of "Water Walk" in 1960).

Most fiction written by Haruki Murakami never fails to remind me of Wong Kar Wai's films. The dreaminess which Wong Kar Wai creates visually, is akin to the emotion Murakami pens. Even the Twilight series has forced readers to look for music which emulates (in one way or another) the books.

Obviously there are far more educational studies on this topic and I may just be rambling, but isn't it the stuff like this that gets you thinking, really thinking? What books remind YOU of other ideas/music/films/art?

Books, Cops, Dissent, Food

THIS really bummed me out last weekend. Sadly I haven't been able to find a video of Ward Churchill's appearance following up on the events the next day. He was well spoken, as he is known for being.

Find me in the philosophy section. I'm going to be reading up, trying to figure out why people are so intolerant of one another.

Oh, and we do carry Lierre Keith's book by the way. And I do recommend it.

Book of the Month: Monsieur Pain

Each month, we here at Green Apple choose a brand-new book for which we're evangelical. We even guarantee the book 100% or your money back. And when we get our act together, we produce a short video about our Book of the Month. This month brings both. Yippee!

We're grateful to director/remainder guy Nick "Buzzsaw" Buzanski and filmmaker/bartender Sean Sullivan for their efforts this month. Herein they reveal the complicated process of choosing the Book of the Month.



And here is Nick's blurb on Bolano's Monsieur Pain, because it's all about the books, right?

While everyone raves about 2666 and The Savage Detectives, most people are missing the true Bolano--the finished, polished, masterful Bolano. He has been published in America by New Directions since 2003, all of them masterfully translated by Chris Andrews (who has won two awards for his translations of Bolano).

This book is a strange and funny novel of the streets of Paris in 1938. Read Monsieur Pain and you will get a sense of what the Chileans knew well before his American "fame." --NPB