St. Mark's Bookshop

Just a few brief things to consider while summer reading:

- Our air-conditioning has been restored, mostly. The bookshop is a lovely 73 degrees fahrenheit this morning. A dramatic improvement.

- David Mitchell came by to sign copies of The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet (and it's apparently "Zoot") and Cloud Atlas, and there are still a bunch of both left.

- The Man Booker Prize Longlist has been announced here.

- David Markson passed away in early June and his library has started to show up at The Strand. For more, go here. (07.28.10)

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The lastest issue of The Paris Review is here, and it's a good one. I feel that each new issue can be judged almost instantly by the interviews, and number 193 will not disappoint on that score. The latest "Art of Fiction" piece is a conversation with David Mitchell, a longtime St. Mark's favorite and author of "The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet," which will be out in about ten days. Then there's the inaugural "Art of Comics" interview with R. Crumb, who talks about his adaptation of the Book of Genesis. (06.17.10)

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Reading Paolo Bacigalupi's "The Windup Girl" and enjoying it a great deal. The premise is very fresh, at least to someone who doesn't read a lot of contemporary science fiction, but it's the density of the text that's the surprising thing. And every page is packed with the echo of insurmountable environmental disaster, so it feels very right-around-the-corner. (06.17.10)

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When he had a regular book page in Equire, Sven Birkerts was worth reading every month. Not just for his skillful reviewing, but because of the way he set the books he wrote about into a larger cultural context. He continues to write and to teach and to publish, in Agni and at Bennington, for example. But his recent essay "Reading in a Digital Age" is further proof that he should be more widely read. He not only discusses what the consumption of web-based media does to our brains, but then follows that thinking into an exploration of what the act of reading is and what impressions it makes on us. Outstanding. (06.02.10)

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We have a "special" edition of the new issue of McSweeney's. Nick McDonell was kind enough to drop by and sign the copies of his latest, "The End of Major Combat Operations," including those copies that happen to be bundled with McSweeney's Number 34. You can have signed McDonell with or without the latest McSweeney's! (05.25.10)

Fans of our reading series, please take note: we've moved over to Bar 82 at 136 Second Avenue for all future events. See you there next Thursday. (05.22.10)

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We're about to run out of first edition copies of Patti Smith's "Just Kids." The pubisher has been out for a while, and copies we received from local wholesalers this morning were eighth printings. So, if those tiny numbers opposite the title page mean anything to you, hurry. We hope to continue to have signed copies (of various printings) on hand for some time to come. (05.19.10)

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Bookselling's annual convention, Book Expo America begins next week here in New York City. If you're visiting for the convention, please drop by the store and introduce yourself. We look forward to seeing you and to showing off our fine store. (05.19.10)

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When Patti Smith dropped by the store yesterday to sign copies of "Just Kids," she had a copy of Roberto Bolano's "Amulet" under her arm. When asked about it, she said that she's a big fan, recommending both "Amulet" and "Distant Star," then singling out "2666" as the late author's masterpiece. She also revealed that she's hard at work on the paperback of "Just Kids," which will feature a redesigned cover and sixteen pages of new material. She knows that she has very dedicated fans who will probably buy the paperback after having already bought the hardcover. By adding extra material, she feels that she can show those fans how much she appreciates them. The paperback edition of "Just Kids" should be ready in time for Robert Mapplethorpe's birthday in early November. (04.28.10)

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Our Small Press Buyer Margarita returns with some great new picks.

Check out "The Eco Language Reader" from Nightboat Books, an anthology of  writing about writing and ecology. Margarita points out "it's theory, but by poets, so it's better."

The winner for favorite title goes to "When You Say One Thing But Mean Your Mother," a poetry collection from Melissa Broder.

"To Light Out" is the first full-length collection of poetry from Karen Weiser, published by our nearby friends at Ugly Duckling Presse.

Ammiel Alcalay brings us "Islanders" from our faraway friends at City Lights.

MacGregor Card won the 2009 Fence Modern Poets Prize and offers us the sort of songbook that is "Duties of an English Foreign Secretary." Enjoy. (04.21.10)

       

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So, okay, you can't judge a book, etc. etc.

But, really, kudos to Dalkey Archive Press for their recent and stunning redesign. Dalkey titles were always distinct but spare, sometimes featuring a black and white photograph superimposed on a plain white background, removed from context but conveying some element of the narrative within.

But look at these two new titles that that arrived just this morning.

Joshua Cohen lives in beloved and bedeviled Brooklyn (Holla!) and Witz (to the left) is his fifth book. It's 817 pages long, so take frequent breaks to run in place or do some sit-ups. The blurb on the back from Steve Erickson should tell you all you need to know about who he is as a writer and what his writing's about. And just look at that cover. The spine, by the way, (which must be an inch and a half thick) is black with white lettering, creating a tasteful contrast.

Dalkey's also published a number of Jean-Philippe Toussaint's books recently. Self-Portrait Abroad (on the right) is a concise 84 pages, and features a semi-atobiographical narrator (as many of Toussaint's books do) roaming the world for the sake of roaming. A perfect, eye-catching sorbet to follow any meal,

Take a look at some of Dalkey Archive's latest titles here at the bookshop. Check out the fresh designs on the covers of all of them, then look inside. (04.16.10)

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If you're a Roberto Bolano completist (and that's a big job these days), we have a new entry for you. El Tercer Reich, a novel from 1989  is now available, in Spanish, from Random House. This is the first of several Spanish language Bolano editions that will be coming out this year ("Estrella Distante" and "Nocturno de Chile" should follow in May), but El Tercer Reich is distinct for not having yet been translated into English. And yes, it means "Third Reich," but no, it's not the Spanish language version of "Nazi Literature in the Americas." (04.15.10)

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Anne Carson's Nox is pretty special, even for her. She is already renowned for her excellent poetry, her thoughtful essays and her elegant translations, but Nox is evidence of all of her talents in one place at one time. She describes it as an epitaph for her brother, and the version we have, published by New Directions, is a replica or facsimile of that relic. It's made from an inches thick sheaf of accordioned paper and contained in a clamshell box. There is collage and there are old photographs. Catullus is present nearly constantly. It's a gorgeous argument against e-readers, is what it is. Come have a look. (04.01.10)

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I like to play a game (which I usually win, of course) of comparing and rating reading material on the subway. New Yorkers try to get a lot done while they're between stops (eating, filling out forms or sorting mail, etc.) and their persistent reading speaks highly of us as a city. I once met a man on F train into Brooklyn who was finishing (finishing!) The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.

Now CoverSpy provides a handy guide to what's being read and where (and by whom) on the MTA and in other public places. (04.01.10)

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Margarita returns with more great books from great small presses.

The first is just your typical pocket book of contemporary poetics, "Notes on Conceptualisms" from our friends in beautiful, bountiful Brooklyn, Ugly Duckling Presse.

Next is a hattrick of hits from Madras Press of Brighton, Mass: Trinie Dalton's "Sweet Tomb" is a short and sweet fiction, Rebecca Lee's "Bobcat" describes a difficult dinner party, and Aimee Bender's "The Third Elevator" is a little animal fancy.

They're here now and ready to be perused at our front counter. (03.26.10)

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The aforementioned "Tournament of Books" has concluded its first round and there are some unexpected winners and losers already. The quarterfinals begin on Monday, March 22nd, and you can check out all the reading the critiqueing action right here. (03.19.10)

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Margarita, St. Mark's Independent Press buyer, has some great recommendations to pass along. They're special books from small presses and they're in stock right now at the bookshop.

First is Richard Hell's "Voidoid," (from 38th Street Publishers) a classic work in a new edition, followed by "Thirty Years of Being Cut Up" by Genesis Breyer P. Orridge, of Throbbing Gristle fame, and third is "Ted Berrigan" (Cuneiform Press) by Bill Berkson and George Schneeman, about an old friend of ours.

 Ryan McGinley's "Moonmilk" is from Morel Books in the UK, "Fela: This Bitch of a Life" is the authorized story of the Afro-Pop icon by Carlos Moore (from Lawrence Hill Books) and "Feminaissance" is an essay collection from Les Figues Press edited by Christine Wertheim.

Come by and check them out. (3.19.10)

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University of Texas at Austin has acquired the archive of David Foster Wallace. The contents will be available to both the public and researchers beginning this fall, and you can preview some stunningly annotated pages here (don't miss the menus at right). (03.10.10)

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The aforementioned Tournament of Books began yesterday morning, with a first round victory for "The Help" over "Lowboy." Check out all the book reading action here. (03.10.10)

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We've added a page to the website for the DVDs we carry in the store, and we'll be updating it regularly. Take a look. (03.05.10)

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Yes, so, we now have a Facebook page. This means you'll be able to read about all kinds of new things from a whole bunch of the people who work here, and you'll be able to talk back to us too. Please check it out. (02.24.10)

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Bolano fans, I have a question. Okay, several. Have you read him in English or in Spanish, or maybe both? Have you read him in both and noticed a difference? Do you believe him to be well-translated? I recently read my first Bolano (which is also his first, The Skating Rink) and I was surprised that it didn't grab me. There has been so much notice and attention to his work, but I thought the writing kind of flat. Am I reading the wrong one? Should I have started with a Farrar Bolano instead of a New Directions Bolano? If you have any advice on this topic (including advising me that I'm wrong) please e-mail us. (02.23.10)

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Are you following all the drama between Macmillan and Amazon? Are you able to understand it? Basically, Macmillan (the smallest of the six largest publishers in the United States) told Amazon that it wouldn't allow its eBooks to be sold for $9.99 going forward and Amazon responded by suspending sales of all Macmillan titles on its site. It's nice to know who your friends are, isn't it? Amazon also accused Macmillan of having a monopoly over books published by Macmillan, which should clarify for everyone just how literate the 200 lb eTailing gorilla in the room happens to be.

Moby Lives, an otherwise merely excellent literary blog, is providing play-by-play coverage at just the right angle (that is, one with which we agree). It all starts here and you can follow almost daily updates thereafter. Also noteworthy is this video of Steve Jobs at the iPad rollout explaining that the $9.99 eBook price is unsustainable and simply won't be a factor going forward. (02.03.10)

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By the way, yesterday (February 2) was James Joyce's 128th birthday. (02.03.10)

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Yes, it's been a while, and longer than we'd like. Between the busy holiday season, the requisite recovery, and other assorted distractions, we'd nearly forgotten about the news. Let's try to make up for that here:

- Perhaps most notably, the nominations for the National Book Critics Circle Award have been announced, and you can see them here.

- Finalists have also been announced for The Story Prize.

- Have you heard of The Tournament of Books? The 2010 contest begins in March, and although the very idea of head-to-head competition between novels might seem a reductive approach to an impossibly subjective task, though it might betray too aggressive an attitude, or seem simply less-than-bookish, it's still intriguing. And we want to see who wins.

- Book Piracy is not nearly as sexy as it sounds, or as one might hope. Here's a piece about one pirate at The Millions. It's mostly to do with downloading and file sharing and not so much the buried treasure or parrots. 

- The writer's under discussion here were all published in the first Best of the Young British Novelists issue of Granta about a thousand years ago (Okay, 1983). How have they endured?

- Finally, there are more and more Kindles popping up on the R train and its related lines here in NYC. Initial curiosity has given way to frustration because it is impossible to determine what, exactly, is being read. It might be true that the best way to detemine that was always to read it oneself (covers being misleading, etc.) but watching other people reading is a minor sport on the New York City Subway, and Kindle, among its other crimes, is eliminating it through uniformity. (01.27.10)

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Of all the year-end and decade-end lists that have appeared already and will continue to pop up in the days and weeks ahead, it's pretty hard to beat this one. A lot of these things are either meant to take up space so content-producers can begin their holidays early, or else to flog something that didn't sell that well back in March (or back in 2004, whichever). This is different, and it's a special treat to see some familiar names recontextualized by the presence of some lesser known but very talented writers. Overall this is a very powerful selection and one that's hard to argue with.

HTMLGiant always reminds you that there are more ideal readers out there than you ever would have imagined. (12.11.09)

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Please do check out Swimming Inside the Sun by David Zweig of Brooklyn. We like the cover and we like the place where we first saw it and it would make a great gift for someone to whom you want to show the worlds in New York. (11.30.09)

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Reading The Selected Essays of Cyril Connolly. Not quite the English Edmund Wilson (not truly fair to either writer) but definitely in the same vein: a learned sharer, a quiet adventurer and a fervent advertiser of the good. (11.30.09)

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This Thursday, Solas Bar will host the last event in our reading series for this year, and it's going to be a big one. Amiri Baraka will be reading, and he's bringing back-up. That's at Solas Bar, on 9th between 2nd and 3rd Avenues, this Thursday, December (already?) 3rd, at 7:30 sharp. (11.30.09)

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Check out this new blog called A City Reader. Its inaugural article is on a subject close to our hearts. (11.30.09)

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Would it be a little off-topic to recommend this piece about pending Health Care Reform Legislation? It's the first good news we've heard on the topic in some time. (11.30.09)

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The National Book Awards were announced last night at Cipriani Wall Street (wow!) and they included:

Phillip Hoose's Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice for Young People's Literature

Ken Waldrop's Transcendental Studies: A Trilogy for Poetry

T.J. Stiles' The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt for Nonfiction

Colum McCann's Let the Great World Spin for Fiction

There was a special award to Gore Vidal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters and The Literarian Award went to Dave Eggers. The Complete Stories of Flannery O'Connor also won for the Best of the National Book Awards Fiction. (11.19.09)

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Sometimes these things get lost in the shuffle, so now might be a good time to remind interested readers that we actually have books by the Nobel-Prize winner Herta Muller, including The Passport and The Land of Green Plums. (11.19.09)

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The Center for Fiction has announced the winner of its First Novel Prize, and it's Woodsburner by John Pipkin. (11.19.09)

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The first annual Independent Bookstore Week begins next Sunday, November 15th, and we'll be celebrating here at St. Mark's by featuring a bunch of your local authors in a special "Independent Bookstore Week" section of our front display wall. The exact details are still uncertain, but we plan to have lots of autographed copies available. Please do stop by and check it out, and we'll try to have some visuals here for you next week. (11.10.09)

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Reading Joan Didion's Run River after finishing Raymond Federman's Critifiction. (11.10.09)

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Sorry about the lack of updates. We now have a new office PC with all the fixings and a newly vigorous hatred for Earthlink. (11.10.09)

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Jonathan Lethem was kind enough to come by this week and sign copies of his new novel, Chronic City. We're still reeling from the twin greatnesses of Motherless Brooklyn and Fortress of Solitude, so maybe we're a little biased, but we were definitely disappointed with the New York Times review on Tuesday. Not just because it was negative, which is certainly permissible, but also because it seemed so unnecessarily nasty. It turns out that there's a specific diagnosis for this kind of problem, and it's part of something called The Kakutani Two-Step. (10.16.09)

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Whatever happened to Harold Brodkey? (10.16.09)

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The nominees for the National Book Award in Fiction, Non-Fiction, Poetry and Children's Literature have been announced and there are some St. Mark's favorites on the list. (10.14.09)

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Nobel Prize season is over but the conversation continues, specifically about the lack of an American Nobelist in Literature since Toni Morrison sixteen years ago. One of our favorite bloggers has a theory and along the way he suggests an original candidate. (10.14.09)

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Reading William T. Vollmann's The Rainbow Stories after finishing Alfred Kazin's A Walker in the City. (10.13.09)

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This is the new poster from Bruce McCall (Noted New Yorker Contributor) for the First Independent Bookstore Week (November 15-21). We hope to have printed versions by sometime next week, and there's likely to be a special signed edition available too. (10.13.09)

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Beginning Sunday, November 15, it's Independent Bookstore Week in New York City. We've yet to figure out exactly how we'll be celebrating, but we'll be celebrating, especially since it just follows St. Mark's Bookshop's 32nd Birthday on the 13th. Keep checking this page for more information. (10.8.09)

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Herta Muller, born in Romania but late of Germany, has won the Nobel Prize for Literature. Not much of her work is currently available in the United States, but that should change shortly. (10.8.09)

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Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall, a historical narrative set in Tudor England, has won the Mann Booker Prize. It will be available in the United States in a cloth edition starting Tuesday, October 13th. (10.7.09)

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We neglected to post it on the "Events" calendar, but we have another in our excellent series of readings tomorrow night (that's Thursday, October 1st) at nearby Solas Bar. This time, we're celebrating the publication of The Best of Fence (here and here) with Alice Bradley, Macgregor Card, Jibade-Khalil Huffman, Jennifer L. Knox and Paul Killegrew. That's at Solas Bar (232 East 9th Street, between 2nd and 3rd Avenues) tomorrow night (Thursday, October 1st) at 7:30 pm, sharp! (9.30.09)

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Nobel Prize Season is nearly upon us. First, the chemists and other fine scientists, and then the main course: Literature. Oh, and, at some point, Peace. HTMLGiant continues to entertain with a brief history of the Nobel Prize for Literature. (9.30.09)

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The Center for Fiction (originating in 1820 as The Mercantile Library) has announced its short list for its First Novel Award:

American Rust by Phillip Meyer

The Cradle by Patrick Somerville

Tinkers by Paul Harding

The Vagrants by Yiyun Li

Woodsburner by John Pipkin

The winner will be announced on November 9th. (9.20.09)

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The translated works of Roberto Bolano, most recently including the one-volume paperback edition of "2666" and "The Skating Rink," continue to amuse and amaze new readers. As his published writings appear for the first time in English and new books are being discovered in manuscript, both in and out of the order in which he wrote them, some kind of atlas or guide might be helpful. Enter The Millions, fine literary blog, and their very thorough Bolano Syllabus. (9.20.09)

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Found this site through a trail of links. Interviews, espeically of writers, are always good (the best part of The Paris Review, for example) and Recommended Reading talks to a lot of writers you should know more about. People who spend so much of their time thinking should be asked what they're thinking more often. (9.18.09)

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Yes, it's only September, but we have 2010 calendars out for sale. New versions of old favorites (Hokusai and Hiroshige, Gorey and Giger) are on display along with calenders featuring a Graffiti Revolution, Sneaker Style and Outsider Art. The Wayne Thiebaud calendar features a gumball machine and the Rothko looks particularly smart this year. (9.18.09)

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Can one make that argument that true literary greatness is a thing of the past, or, at least, that potential greatness is confounded by the cautious and cost-conscious nature of modern publishing? Check out an excellent literary blog, HTML Giant, and these posts (here and here) that make the case for and against. (9.17.09)

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The New York Times points out something subway riders already know: there's a lot of reading going on in those trains. The R in the morning has held a few surprises from time to time, but the F in the late afternoon is where I saw a man finishing Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.

The third of three volumes.

On the subway. (9.10.09)

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Reading That Awful Mess on the Via Merulana. That is, admiring its vast riches and wishing I read Italian. The translator admits in his introduction that he couldn't accurately render the range of dialects, so one whole dimension of the novel is lost to the English reader. Still, precision of phrasing and a kind of compactness of depth are two high prioroties in literature and this novel delivers. (9.10.09)

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The Shortlist for the Man Booker Prize was announced today, turning the previous twelve into six:

The Children's Book by A.S. Byatt

Summertime by J.M. Coetzee

The Quickening Maze by Adam Foulds

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel

The Glass Room by Simon Mawer

The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters

Some of these titles have yet to be released in America, but we've linked to all that are available now or will be in the near future. The winner will be announced on October 6th. (9.08.09)

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Inventory Coincidences (the first in a potentially ongoing series):

Found next to each other on a backlist order this morning were Everything and More and Everything and Nothing. (09.08.09)

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Finishing Arendt's Eichmann in Jerusalem, asking what does it have in common with Hersey's Hiroshima and The Massacre at El Mozote? Submit answers here. (09.08.09)

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This Tuesday, September 1, 2009, marks the seventieth anniversary of the start of the Second World War after the German invasion of Poland. Auden's "September 1, 1939" memorializes the occasion with power and solemnity. (08.31.09)

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Reading Hannah Arendt's Eichmann in Jerusalem (08.31.09)

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Can this be true? It would be nice to think so. (08.14.09)

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Reading Sidewalk Critic, a collection of architectural and urban criticism by Lewis Mumford. (08.14.09)

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Haruki Murakami's "What I Talk About When I Talk About Running" came out in paperback yesterday, but that's not the Murakami we're waiting for. His latest novel, "1Q84" has been a huge seller in Japan but there's no English translation on the horizon as yet. Check out this review at Neojaponisme for some idea of what's to come. (08.12.09)

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Well, that was unexpected. We had copies of Thomas Pynchon's "Inherent Vice" ready to sell on Monday night at midnight, and you were ready to buy! We actually sold more copies of "Inherent Vice" in that half an hour than we did of "Against the Day" in the same thirty minute span two and a half years ago. What recession? (8.4.09)   

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The Longlist for the Man Booker Prize was announced yesterday, consisting of the twelve books from which the winner will be chosen. They are:

The Children's Book by A.S. Byatt

Summertime by J.M. Coetzee

The Quickening Maze by Adam Foulds

How to Paint a Dead Man by Sarah Hall

The Wilderness by Samantha Harvey

Me Cheeta by James Lever

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel

The Glass Room by Simon Mawer

Not Untrue and Not Unkind by Ed O'Loughlin

Heliopolis by James Scudamore

Brooklyn by Colm Toibin

Love and Summer by William Trevor

The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters

Some of these titles have yet to be released in America, but we've linked to all that are available now or will be in the near future. The winner will be announced on October 6th. (7.29.09) 

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Somewhat in the shadow of Thomas Pynchon's new novel, which comes out shortly, is a new book by William T. Vollmann. Imperial seems typical for Vollmann, which is to say that it is distinctly atypical. But don't take our word for it... (07.26.09) 

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Reading E.L. Doctorow's The Book of Daniel (07.26.09) 

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If you're trying to read David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest and you're stumped, help is on the way. We're getting in copies of Greg Carlisle's Elegant Complexity, a formal study of the mammoth novel. (07.23.09)

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Reading Walter Benjamin's Berlin Childhood Around 1900 (7.23.09)

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Margarita is the small press buyer at St. Mark's, and she'd like to recommend some newly published books she thinks may have been overlooked:

Open City publishes only one book a year, and this year that book is Flight Patterns, a collection of writing about flying featuring classic and contemporary authors.

Litmus Press has published Hyperglossia, an excellent new poetry collection from Stacy Syzmaszek, the art director of the St. Mark's Poetry Project.

Another recent find is The Selected Poems of Steve Carey, edited by Edmund Berrigan and published by Farfalla Press.

Will Work For Drugs is No Wave pioneer Lydia Lunch's follow-up to 2007's Paradoxia, both published by Akashic Books of Brooklyn. (7.23.09) 

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A customer wrote us about Narrative Magazine (for both readers and writers) and their current story contest, so check it out. (7.23.09)

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The latest issue of The Paris Review has a typically fascinating interview, only the second in The Art of Nonfiction series, with Gay Talese. Read it not only to get a look at his method and a sense of his story, but also to find out what exactly this is. (7.12.09)

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A great literary blog, The Millions, has a pretty comprehensive list of books we're looking forward to. The next DeLillo novel gets mentioned in the comments section. (7.12.09)

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We're staying open late again!

It was only two and a half years ago that Thomas Pynchon's "Against the Day" was published, over nine years after "Mason & Dixon." To celebrate, we stayed open after midnight the day before it was to go "officially" on sale in order to satisfy the diehard fans, and we sold... more than we thought we would, honestly.

Now, he's back again, and sooner then we thought he'd be. Pynchon's new novel, "Inherent Vice" will be released "officially" on Tuesday, August 4th, so we'll be open for one extra half hour after midnight on Monday, August 3rd to sell the book. (7.7.09)

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London-based electronic musician Scanner writes some very nice words about the bookshop, and we're much obliged. (7.7.09)

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We've added a page of remainders to the website (just a few so far) and we've also added a new, enormous bookshelf full of the same next to the sale table at the back of the store. Times are tough and money's tight, but these books are priced to move. (7.7.09)

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I'm reading Kate Braverman's "Palm Latitudes" and it's positively florid in the finest sense of the word. (7.7.09)