Read digital AND shop local

As we hope you've heard by now, you can now buy eBooks from Green Apple for any device (except the Kindle; only the tax-dodging Amazon sells those). Also, price competition has mostly gone away, so Green Apple's Google eBooks match all other sellers on price for most eBooks. All else being equal, why not get them from Green Apple?

Intimidated? Don't be. Even Sparky the Sock can do it (and he can barely turn pages in real books). Check it out.



Our site also offers title suggestions to get you started, and tutorials for any device. Getting set up will take a few minutes, but then your books will always be available (since they're stored in "the cloud") and ordering is super easy.

PLEASE help spread the word. Most people who read eBooks don't think of Green Apple as a go-to source. But now you can do your part to keep Green Apple thriving by telling your e-reading pals to buy them from us. Thanks!

The Library

The Library from Sergey Stefanovich on Vimeo.

“When I bought this flat, I promised myself: no books in the bedroom. I’m a terrible insomniac, and I thought having books in the bedroom, and all the psychological power they embody, would not be good for a quiet night’s sleep. However, the books demanded to be incorporated into my domestic world. And invaded my bedroom and there they are.” -- Duncan Fallowell

August's Book of the Month: I Curse the River of Time

Buy it here, thank us later

So many Green Applers loved the latest from Per Petterson (author of Out Stealing Horses), that it was a no-brainer selecting it as our "Book of the Month" for August. Below is Molly's pitch as to why we think you'll agree:

This novel caught and held me for an immersive three days of reading. It takes place in roughly that span of time in a journey through Norway and through memories, told via the monologue of a man whose most basic truths are crumbling around him. In his signature hauntingly precise prose and dreamlike narrative structure, Petterson subtly unfolds multiple stories that could have easily fallen to cliches (divorce, familial class struggles, cancer) in a unique, poignant, and inexplicably hopeful way. As with most books I love, when I finished this one I felt something like relief - not that it was over, but that it exists.

And here is our further attempt to get you to buy this fantastic book.  If you enjoy it, please help us spread the good word.

As always, we guarantee our monthly selections. If you don't love I Curse the River of Time, we'll refund you the cost of the book.

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

The Book vs. the Kindle, Round 8: Staff Favorites

Welcome to Round 8. It may be too late for the Kindle to come back, but there's still reason to watch: Sparks and Nick get saltier every time, if nothing else. . . .

Herein we pit Green Apple's Staff Favorites display (the best-selling bookcase in the store, mind you) against Amazon's inventory for Kindle. You may be surprised at how few of the 35 or so titles on our display are available on the Kindle. . . .

Video on SF booksellers from Mother Jones

Green Apple has certainly been enjoying all the attention that our Books vs Kindle videos have been garnering - and rest assured that the best is yet to come (don't miss #10). Thanks to everyone who has passed them on to friends, to all who have left comments, and those who have mentioned them to me in person. All of us here send out a big hug of gratitude!

Mother Jones magazine was by Green Apple Books recently to interview me for a video of theirs called 'Independent Bookstores (and why we love them).' In addition to Green Apple, they also feature Cover to Cover, and in what may be their final public appearance, Stacey's.

I love the tone of this, and I hope that its message rings as true for you as it does for me. Thanks MoJo for including us! Enjoy. . .

The Book vs. the Kindle, Round 7: Storytime

OK. We have not yet been fair OR balanced, but now it's just going to get gratuitous. Yes, we will shamelessly use our very own children to illustrate the value of the printed book. Enjoy, spread the word, and buy a kid a book.

The Book vs. the Kindle, Round 6: Finding the right read

Now let's pit the Kindle's search function against a bookseller's knowledge. Surely a handheld computer can help this young lady find just the right book for her boyfriend? Comeback time for the Kindle?

The Book vs. the Kindle, Part 1 of 10

People keep asking me, as an owner of an old-fashioned brick-and-mortar independent bookstore, what I think of the Amazon Kindle, one of the many “e-readers” available. So I bought one.

I admit, I was curious. The buzz is nearly screeching; and there must be a reason we don’t sell as many John Grisham novels as we did when I started 16 years ago; and who can resist the appeal of a new gadget dedicated to one of life’s necessary pleasures: reading.

Sure, I had heard some bad stories: there’s the class-action lawsuit against Amazon concerning screens that crack. And the recent brouhaha about Amazon silently removing 1984, Animal Farm, and other titles from Kindles (albeit for a good reason—they had sold pirated copies). And having seen Amazon founder Jeff Bezos laughing on Jon Stewart's Daily Show is enough to make anyone scared.

And while there are some thoughtful, balanced articles out there, like Nicholson Baker’s piece in the current New Yorker, I wanted to see for myself.

So Green Apple's crack video crew came at it with an open mind, pitting “The Book” against the Kindle in a smack-down of the most literary sort. We had plenty of help from some, um, "talented" folks, as you'll see.

What follows over the next ten days are ten short videos, taking a careful, if tongue-in-cheek, look at each “format.”

Enjoy Episode 1, and check back tomorrow for Episode 2.