John Waters Drops By

The great John Waters dropped in today and signed copies of his just released book, Role Models, a collection of profiles of the director's favorite personalities. George Washington? Not so much. Martin Luther King? Uh-uhn. Perfect gift for dad, if your dad is a bit twisted.

Books on TV

LOST is over. Were you following it? Well, I don't blame ya' if you don't watch TV. Amid the myriad of total crap out there I can hardly understand why most people turn the damn thing on in the first place. I mean, I enjoy the absurdity that is commercial programming, but I don't think you can even find real news on it anymore, can you? I'm skeptical, but that's beside the point. What I'm meaning to get at is LOST.

I don't think there's been such a game changer on TV since the X-Files. LOST was challenging the ugly paradigm that is prime time programming. What other show today, albeit through the veil of sci-fi action/entertainment, was questioning the unknown and pushing an interest in physics and literature? The series is littered with books and literary references, usually featuring specific works in episodes in which they might pertain. They range from the obvious (Huxley's Island or Hawking's A Brief History of Time), to the slightly more obscure (Casares' The Invention of Morel or A. Merritt's The Moon Pool). So if you're hurting for something to read, it might not be a bad idea to take a look at this list of literary references in the series. There's a hell of a lot of gems in it. Also, if you didn't watch the show, pick it up on DVD from our fiction annex. It'll screw you up with island fever!

Woulda, coulda, shoulda...

As mentioned in a post here last week, Green Apple and Daniel Handler became finalists in the 1st Annual Moby Awards for Best and Worst Book Trailers, sponsored by Melville House Publishers. I'm saddened, however, to have to mention that the grand Mr. Handler was not victorious. Claiming the blue ribbon in the catagory of 'Best Author Appearance' was instead the highly deserving Head Case with Dennis Cass.

When I mentioned to Daniel that he / we were finalists for this award, he replied that," This is not one of those things where it's an honor to be nominated. I MUST WIN!"

So, if you see Daniel around town this week, please be nice him - I can only imagine how his heart is breaking...

Happy Day of Special Significance

Yes, today would have been Harvey Milk's 80th birthday, and the state of California is honoring the man's memory with a "Day of Special Significance." What is that? Sounds vaguely Communist, like something they might celebrate in North Korea to honor The Dear Leader. I saw in the paper where the Traditional Values Coalition objected to the proclamation because Milk hadn't done enough to deserve the honor. Ummm, maybe that's because someone shot him (?). Anyway, we at Green Apple salute you, Harvey. We know you would have been a loyal customer.

And as long as we're offering salutations, I would like to send out some mad props to Green Apple's corps of sign-makers. We do all of our signage at the store by hand, and being blessed with a creative and multi-talented staff, some of them turn out some pretty cool signs. Maybe you've walked by some of them without noticing, seeing as we are a working bookstore and not an art gallery. But I wanted to take a second and feature some of the more artistic signs that have appeared around the store of late.







Not a sign, but still pretty darn awesome.

Happy Books II (Positive Mental Attitude)

KPR wrote a short post on 'happy books' a couple of weeks back, leaving me with a kind of challenge, that being just to name a couple. Being an avid reader of tales mostly involving poverty, woe, and soul rending existential disquiet, it's tough to track down something upbeat outside of maybe a Henry Miller book in my personal library, and his mode of happiness is a little more insane than what I think falls in the realm of just plain old normal 'happy.'

So here's the best I could do:


Schertenleib's A Happy Man, published in Melville House's immediately recognizable New Novella series is, quite possibly the happiest books I've read in my life. Not in a cheesy life affirming my-name-is-Sark-and-I-love-to-nap kind of way, the lyrical prose is warm and charming as the book details the life of a man named 'This' and his deep affection for the world around him, despite being surrounded by a literal world of discontent. I recommend the book not only based on the hope that it might inspire a sort of good feeling inside some sad reader out there, but just the idea that there exists a compelling story of a person who cannot seem to recognize sadness as an option is a point of curiosity as well. PMA.

Daniel Handler is a finalist. . . .

for perhaps the least rewarding (for him) but most exciting (for us) award a writer can win.

Here's the story: Melville House--a wonderful, smallish publisher who produces a lot of literature in translation that we really like (among other good books)--is running a contest to recognize the best (and worst) video trailers for books: the 2010 Moby Awards.

Someone was smart enough to nominate local author Daniel Handler (aka Lemony Snicket) for his appearance in The Book vs. the Kindle, Round 10: a Seriously Unfortunate Event. And it has been chosen as one of five finalists.

So how could we not re-broadcast that hilarious two minutes and one second? Good luck with the award, Mr Handler. We'll update the blog Friday with the (inevitable?) results. Oh, and here are all the finalists.

Poem of the Week by Aram Saroyan

As Lord Polonius put it so well in Hamlet, "brevity is the soul of wit." So here's this week's poem, from Complete Minimal Poems by Aram Saroyan (Ugly Duckling Presse, 2007).

Two Sentences

1. I'm trying to write a poem.

2. The broom is in the corner.