Awesome!

Green Chic on Earth Day

Yes, yes, we all know by now that we need to be saving the earth, even if certain high-ranking government officials don't believe in global warming.

While they're getting up to speed on reality, you can pick up this little tome, printed on 100% post-consumer recycled paper with vegetable-based ink. It is chock full of suggestions to help you live in a healthier and more earth-friendly way, and most of them are not even scary or unattainable.

Tips run the gamut from replacing regular light bulbs with CFCs to getting an earth- and toe-friendly pedicure. There are also ideas for editing your closet, planning a green wedding and furnishing your home in an ecologically responsible way.

The author acknowledges that not everybody can or will follow all the recommended ways to live green (how many people can afford solar panels?), so she provides many quick-and-easy green fixes along with larger projects. None of her suggestions require you to do without - more like do differently or do with a little less. And it's all backed up by easy-to-grasp scientific explanations of what's good, what's bad and why. Read it and be inspired.

How to be a parent

1. Get knocked up
2. Gestate
3. Wait a year or so
4. Traumatize!!

 

Legitimizing

In order for something to be officially accepted as a cultural and artistic movement, it needs to be endorsed by National Geographic. Someone at Neo Geo must have been asleep at the wheel, or catering to their 15 year old niece and her Facebook friends, because they've published a whole entire book on how to take great cameraphone pictures.

Forget the tripods and light meters and framing and styling and anything else that used to mean "photography." Now all you need is...your phone.

Little girls be daring

People have been hounding me to get The Daring Book for Girls ever since it came out, and I think the avalanche of "THIS BOOK IS SO GOOD" made me want to ignore it completely and never crack it open.

Today I did, and holy cow! THIS BOOK IS SO GOOD!

If you've got a girl in your life who you want to encourage to be independent and confident as she grows, get her this book. She'll learn how to do those basic "girl" things, like how to do the perfect cartwheel every time, but she'll also learn some imperative female skills: how to create your own secret language, how to shoot hoops, how to deal cards and how to build a campfire that will put the boys to shame.

This holiday season, I cannot recommend another book more. It's the perfect gift for girls of all ages, since, ahem, some of us nearing 30 didn't know how to build a campfire until now.

A companion to The Dangerous Book for Boys, just in case a guy you know needs to learn how to tie a good slip knot.

Not your mom's Lucinda Handwriting

I'm kind of obsessed with font and drawing all over the margins of any piece of paper in  front of me, so I was beyond excited to get a copy of Hand Job: A Catalog of Type.

Part journal, part collection of type, each page is full of fonts and drawings and doodles by Michael Perry and other renowned graphic artists, of course all done by hand. It's a mesmerizing peek into how some people took their jr. high binders and turned them into art.

Oh, did you think this was another kind of book? You're dirty.

Let's get phyzzzical

My gym is about 2.3 miles from my house, which in Chicago distance is actually 900 miles to the center of the earth. I try to go every day, really I do, but I'm more likely to make it 3 times a week. And I drive there eating a brownie.

I'd much rather lay in my awesome bed and convince myself I'm burning calories, so this book is on my wishlist. Also on my wishlist: This actually being true, losing 10 pounds with my head on the pillow, the possibility that this book also comes with someone to feed me brownies while I get fit.

And someone to move my gym to my living room.

Kreme of the crop

A couple weeks ago I got this book after seeing the author on one of those newsmagazine shows where one week they say peanut butter should be outlawed and the next week they hail the healing effects of Jiff. People are constantly finding new and innovative ways to contradict themselves, so I figured why not give this one a shot?

The Abs Diet For Women is a book about changing your diet to release stored fat around your abdomen, fat that has been lingering there ever since you were 20 and decided to finish off the entire box of Krispy Kremes during your late night cram session. Your body panicked thinking food was in short supply since you were gorging yourself all night, so it held on to those fat cells just in case of an impending famine. And all those donuts are still there.

I started practicing the diet disciplines in this book 2 weeks ago and I've lost 2 inches off my waist, regardless of the beer I still guzzle. In due course, the beer will have to go as well, but for now I'm pretty pleased with how easily it is to recondition your body to finally let go of those donuts.

BCC: All

If you're the attorney I worked for when I was 19, take an English class sometime. It's been almost 10 years and I can't shake the horrors of you asking "Whom is on line 1?"

For anyone who has to suffer through mass emails from co-workers, poorly written newsletters, meeting minutes surmised of a three page run-on sentence and corporate misuse of quotation marks, take refuge.

How Not to Write is the perfect hint for your grammatically challenged colleagues since they still haven't mastered when it's appropriate to just say who.

Not Sedaris

I have to admit, I rolled my eyes through the entire first chapter of this book, especially the whole part about when the Canadian author became an American citizen and immediately felt "buyer's remorse." Political proclivities aside I decided to keep reading, and I am so glad I did:

"It was Martha Stewart, in fact, who made me realize that "art fag," the disparaging term I used to describe myself and my hobbies, was actually the same thing as being handy. It was an epithet first hurled at me by some rough boys who walked by me late on night in Brooklyn when I was twenty-four years old. I didn't have the courage to yell back at them, "That's Arthur Fag to you!"

I haven't laughed out loud at a book in a long time, and every chapter of Don't Get Too Comfortable has at least five belly laughs embedded between the lines. It's breezy and funny and the perfect summer read, especially since it's only $10 on Amazon.

So the angle goes outward...

The other day Martha was on the Today Show talking about this new book of hers, and I just sat there scoffing as she demonstrated to Matt Lauer how to use a fucking broom. I mean, really? A broom? Are we that retarded?

But then she started talking about how to properly flip your mattress and I was intrigued, and then it was cleaning your fridge and you know how I am, and suddenly I was completely obsessed with getting this book.

And now I've learned how to store my cleaning solutions so they don't leak or lose their power, how to clean your grout, how to flush the pipes in my shower, and oh yeah, how and when to flip a mattress.

Also, I've been using a broom all wrong this whole time.

PS: Yes, you can get this elsewhere, but this one is autographed!

First Chapters

For those of you who'd rather curl up with a good book after work than watch Simon Cowell and Ryan Seacrest call each other homos while Paula cries, and a bunch of questionably talented twenty-somethings with good hair get "pitchy" with the mic, then maybe First Chapters is more your kind of competition.

Gather.com First Chapters Writing Competition is "a first-time author's gateway to publication. One Novelist will win a publishing contract with Touchstone/Simone & Schuster, a $5,000 cash prize and promotion by Borders!" Anyone can read and vote on the best first chapters of an unpublished book and the votes continue on through successive chapters until a winner is chosen.

So put that remote down already and get to reading. The hair might not be as great, but there probably won't be as many pitch problems, either.

Ignorance is bliss

If you've never listened to the Ricky Gervais show on Guardian Unlimited, or purchased the audiobook on iTunes, you need to stop what you're doing and go download them NOW.

And if the audio version isn't your bag, why not pick up their new book, The World of Karl Pilkington.

But if you don't think someone saying that Eric Clapton's song "Wonderful Tonight" is about a "little crippled fella' in a wheelchair," is the funniest thing you've heard in a long time and if out of nowhere you find that you can't stop laughing about it even when you're all alone, to the point of almost pissing yourself and having to run to your own bathroom while still laughing uncontrollably, then probably don't buy this book.

I Like You, Too

When I was visiting New York last weekend, I decided to spend a whole afternoon in Borders of all places so I could flip through magazines and skim books, I guess because when you're in New York City there's obviously nothing else to do with your time? Also, there was a Sephora right next door.

Anyhoo, needing a break from my stack of gossip magazines, I picked up the awesome Amy Sedaris book "I Like You: Hospitality Under the Influence" and quickly became grossed out, er, engrossed.

Engrossed because Sedaris is hilarious and who knew a hospitality book could be so entertaining? But it is! Jam-packed with helpful household tips, recipes, quirky photos, rules of etiquette, and Sedaris' trademark tongue in her cheek, "I Like You" is ultimately a domestic arts guide more for the reader of Bust than Ladies Home Journal.

Plus, it includes a tip for making your nipples look bigger through your t-shirts. See? Engrossing!

The Knife Man

I'm not into chick-lit whatsoever, I really like stories about the evolution of technology through history, like the industrial revolution and 19th Century medicine. Which is why I love this awesome book, The Knife Man by Wendy Moore.

John Hunter is the father of modern surgery, but he started out as a body-snatching social exile who practices medicine without a license. He met patients in alleys and behind taverns in London's grittiest streets and convinced them to let him experiment on their ailments, eventually leading to the discovery of vaccines for venereal diseases by injecting himself with the viruses.

Plus he stole bodies! Uhm, awesome. Read it!

I Know You're Out There

I've always thought that the personals section of any weekly publication is literature at its finest. In just one or two pages, you've got hope, despair, drama, desperation, depression, longing, humiliation, wit, black comedy, and lots of lying. 

And now, before I had the brilliant idea myself, someone has put together a book of personals called I Know You're Out There, which offers insights into the "private longings" and "public humiliations" of singles (and not-so-singles) looking for love (or a 420-friendly NSA roll in the sack).

With seven years experience as editor for the Chicago Reader personals section, Michael Beaumier draws on both his professional and personal experiences to write a collection of tales that are at once bitingly funny and desperately sad. Sort of like Paula Abdul.

Speak my language

  This is going to sound unbearably cheesy, but I never really had a good realtionship until I read Gary Chapman's book The Five Love Languages.

Relationships are hard in the first place, and it makes them more difficult when you find yourself having the same arguments over and over becuase you feel like your S.O. isn't hearing what you need. Instead of blaming them for not getting it, do some research and figure out their language!

Some of us express love and commitment with gifts and acts of service, while others express their love through quaity time and words of affirmation. When you figure out what how your partner expresses their love, I guarantee you your entire relationship will change for the better.

And if you're single? BUY THIS BOOK NOW. Save yourself some time and heartache, won't ya?

Book Smart

Know what to get that bookworm on your holiday list?  No, not another book, you big dope!  If he's a big enough worm, chances are he's already got the book you'll spend an hour picking out at Borders. 

Spend that hour doing something productive instead, like browsing the gossip magazines and learning why Britney was really flashing her snatch, and buy your favorite nerd a Readers Journal, so he can keep track of all the great literature that's enriched his life while you've been busy reading about crotch shots.

Happy Together

  If you haven't picked up a copy of our first book, The Very Best Weblog Writing Ever Vol. 1, now's your chance to get it at a special rate when you bundle it with Maggie Mason's book No One Cares What You Had For Lunch: 100 Ideas For Your Blog.

Get them together at Amazon for just $28.58 plus shipping, then go delete all your blog archives after being humiliated with how bad they are, with the driveling and the lunch menus and the poetry. Spend the weekend reading both books and crying to yourself, then swear to your friends and family and readers to be a better blogger - NAY, a better person!

The world needs better people.

"Here, you throw this away."

Since the holidays are typically the most wasteful months of the year, why not buck the trend a bit and focus on reducing and reusing and recycle-cling. Re-cy-cle-ing. Recycling? Whatever.

This book will show you how to create something awesome out of your old worn out t shirts instead of just tossing them into the trash or turning them into rags. And if you're about to complain that we should give all our worn out, old clothes to Good Will, just think of how rude that is. Do you really think it's *nice* for me to give away my shitty Blogger t shirts to someone just because they're "needy"? NO ONE IS THAT NEEDY.

Also, this is a GREAT GIFT for that teenager in your life who needs a bit of encouragement exploring their creative side! Yay for destruction!

The Cruiser Bike is Self-Explanatory

Pop will eat itself:
Hence, t-shirts with wry slogans
About wry t-shirts

Your "neighborhoodie"
Sends a very clear message
Which is: "I'm new here"

Thanks, Aunt Polly.
But Chili's gift certificates
Are no good to me

We love you, Siobhan

Alain de Botton: In Person

If you're around the San Francisco area tomorrow, October 13, come down to the Bookshop West Portal for a reading and book signing by Alain de Botton, my very favorite author ever.

His books have completely changed the way I read and write, everything from understanding tonal language to incorporating historical context in everyday narratives. He's just a really fucking great writer, and I'm continually inspired by his work.

His latest book, The Architecture of Happiness, explores the influence of space and places on our emotions and lifestyles, and it's just as great as the rest of his stuff.

Come see him tomorrow, and if you see me there weeping in the corner while inconspicuously snapping pictures of my hero, just let me be.

Twenty-Something

While I'm now no longer in the target demographic  for the new book, Twenty Something Essays by Twenty Something Writers, I no less enjoyed flipping through the pages the other day at the Borders coffee shop while sipping a skim latte and making a concerted effort to look as if I read something other than gossip magazines and how-to-guides for erasing the cellulite from my thighs and the love handles from my waist without giving up french toast or beer.

The essays, pleasantly low on self-absorption, really do, as the book description says, "begin to define this remarkably diverse and self-aware generation." 

Would make a good gift for that twenty-something english lit grad in your life who, you know, probably spends all her time reading books, writing blogs, and serving people coffee.

For High-Minded Lowlifes

One of the best magazines you've maybe never heard of, Stop Smiling, is a 10-year-old publication started by artist JC Gabel that dubs itself "The Magazine for High-Minded Lowlifes."  Each issues is jam-packed with amazing photos and art direction, as well as in-depth interviews with the kinds of fascinating subjects you might actually care about.

The current issue is an "ode to the midwest," and features an 18-page spread on my personal favorite living writer: Kurt Vonnegut.  There's also some stuff in there on Bob Dylan, TS Eliot, Ernest Hemingway, Touch and Go Records, and for those of you who can't imagine reading any literary rag that doesn't have a Dave Eggers stamp, the current issue of Stop Smiling even has an interview with that guy, too.

I notice they don't have Awesome in their sidebar of recommended internet reads, but I guess I can overlook that minor flaw.  For now.

Because apparently Strip Poker isn't enough

In a recent email from my dad, he writes: "I actually got this in an email yesterday from Amazon.com. Because Mom had bought a book for one of you kids (I forgot which daughter it was for), Amazon recommended this book to us. It's one of the freakiest books I have ever heard of, but ought to be the center attraction at around 3:00 am at someone's party."

I'm really not sure which is more utterly bizarre: the concept of this book ("Penis Pokey is an illustrated board book with a large die-cut hole in its center. Every spread features a dazzling full-color illustration with one thing missing—a banana, perhaps, or a fire hose, or a sea serpent. Male readers can complete the illustrations using the talents God has given them."), or the fact that Amazon recommended it to my unassuming, baby-boomer parents.

Editor's Favorite: The Red Notebook

I have a short attention span.  In fact, I'm already wishing I hadn't started this post because I've lost focus on writing it and wish I could just be at the beach or maybe even shaving my legs or doing Sudoku.  That's what all that television as a child did to me.  And now we have blogs.  Who bothers even reading books anymore when there are millions of fucking blogs to fill up our time?

BUT!  If you do find yourself longing for something tangible to hold as you read -- something to bring with you to the beach, to soak up along with the waning summer sun, The Red Notebook by Paul Auster gets my vote.

An easy read -- one that can be finished in a couple of hours -- The Red Notebook will leave you feeling accomplished (hey you read a whole book!  From cover to cover!) and inspired.  "All the tales and vignettes, hovering somewhere between fact and fiction, feature amazing little coincidences or linkages"...the kind of coincidences that affirm the existence of something in this world greater than ourselves and remind pessimists like me that the universe isn't always conspiring against us.

Now thank god this post is over.  I have to go Sudoku...

Favorites of Becky Haycox

Awesome reader Becky sent us some of her favorite shops and spots online!

SWAPATORIUM: Flea markets, thrift stores, antique shops,
garage and estate sales, found photographs, collecting, odd finds, swaps and more

EVANY THOMAS: Great book, even awesomer blog

POISE: Purses. Yay!

SUPERMAGGIE: Clothes, accessories on the crafty tip. The teeshirts: YUM

TOUCH OF GINGER: Future-retro james bondian-style gifts, including the bizarre EMERGENCY CUFFLINKS

Baby be Useful

In response to a recent comment, I suggested it'd be very useful if babies came attached to bottle openers.  Put them to work!, I say.  The folks over at McSweeney's must agree with me, too, since they have a series of Baby Be Useful books for sale, including Baby Do My Banking, a 12-page, vibrantly colored instructional book covering everything from checkbook balancing to using ATMs. Definitely a great gift for all your yahoo friends busy breeding.

See also: Better Than Onesies.

"...A source of hope for us all."

I got the greatest book ever in the mail yesterday and I am so astounded by it. LaPorte, Indiana is a collection of portraits found in the back of a diner in the rural Midwest after they were discarded by the new owners of a former photography studio.

Jason Bitner, the creator of Found Magazine, has picked through 18,000 portraits of LaPorte citizens taken in the 1950's and 60's and bound them together in a beautiful book of anonymous faces. Each one strikes you with hope and beauty, and joyful dignity. They sat packed tightly together for some 30 years before they were discovered by Bitner who has finally done them justice.

LaPorte, Indiana makes a tremendous gift for the insightful, curious friend in your life, or for anyone who enjoys an accidental treasure trove of history.

Ahhhhhoy!

All the pirates running around this month is reminding me of one of my favorite books, Blue Latitudes by Tony Horwitz. It's an awesome recount of the travels of a one Captain James Cook, the dude who we all owe a great debt to for discovering Tahiti.

Can you imagine what life would be like without Tahiti? Think of it: no magical place to dream of running off to with your rent money and the pool boy after seeing an advertisement on Expedia that says you can go there for a week for under $800 if you don't mind a 2-star hotel and four layovers on the way, and work has been rough and you're at the end of your rope and you just got paid and you're thinking, I could stay in Tahiti forever!

Captain Cook. What a man he was.

Best Ever On Sale!!!

Hey! Look at that! Our book is now officially on sale! Why don't you treat yourself to a nice little copy, or perhaps a convenient little download?

Disclaimer: Yeah, that rating says "mature." That's because, among the beautiful stories of family bonding, soul mates and the hunger for acceptance that resides in us all, there's a lot of stories about throwing up and jerking off.

So. Uhm. Anyway, it's a good book! But I'd keep it away from grandma.

Hey! We wrote a book!

Awesome has been quiet this week because we've been preparing to release our first major serious awesome professional piece of literature, The Very Best Weblog Writing Ever By Anyone Anywhere In The Whole Wide World!

We started this project four months ago, and in two weeks the book will be available to the world. But today we're announcing a pre-order release! Which means you get it for just $15 and pay no shipping charge! And you'll get it A WHOLE WEEK before anyone else!

Now doesn't that sound like the best way to end our first week of Cheap Ass $50 June? We think so, and we think you should hurry up and order your copy!

Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva

So, Smarty, tell me: Who are the three gods of the Hindu trinity? What were the four chief winds in ancient Greece? How about the 7 French dynasties?

If you're like me you already know the answers. But if you're not, you should go pick up What Are The 7 Wonders Of The World and 100 Other Great Cultural Lists--Fully Explicated. It's a long title for a basic bible of historical reference, and it's worth reading cover to cover. You'll learn everything from the names of Noah's sons to each range of then human voice, and you'll certainly be the hit of BBQ season this summer.

I don't want to see your shelf!

How many times have you looked at the empty space on your wall and thought, " I wish I had some books sort floating there, you know, with no shelf -- just floating.  On the wall.  With no shelf."?  Well now you can!  Sort of!

See, this shelf is a conceal book shelf, which means it's all hidden and shit in the back cover of the empty book.  I know, so genius!  So, you can pile a stack of books on the wall and invite people over and they will all think you're magic like Harry Potter with your floating books on the wall.

You can even put a little bud vase of top of the books with a tulip or something.  You know, to be cute!

Possible Side Effects: Guffawing

I almost didn't make it to the Augusten Burroughs signing at Borders last night, which would have been a shame since he read from his hilarious new book "Possible Side Effects" and had the packed audience guffawing hysterically, and when was the last time you guffawed?  Seriously, it just doesn't happen enough, you know?

If you haven't yet been acquainted with Burroughs, wait no longer.  Entertainment Weekly named him one of the top 15 funniest people in America and his first memoir, "Running With Scissors," has been made into a movie which will be released this Autumn and is going to be kind of a really big deal.

Like his other memoirs, "Possible Side Effects" is a collection of stories about Burrough's really weird life and the dysfunctional characters he encounters on a regular basis.  His comic timing is superb, but it's the way he makes the staggering heartbreak of his life jump off the page in prose so delicious, one can't wait to have seconds and thirds, that's truly genius.

Willie Knows Happiness

I haven't even picked up this book yet, "The Tao of Wille," but I already know it's going to be awesome, because, hello, Willie Nelson!  Who doesn't love Willie?  Just look at the yin-yang sign in the "o" of Tao -- I mean, you just know this is gonna be some good reads.

I saw Willie this morning on The Today Show and he was all,"yeah, a positive attitude is a good thing, " and "be thankful for what you have," and I was all, "right on, Willie."  Plus, he's into promoting biodiesel and peace and shit like that, and who can't back that up, you know?  God, I love Willie.

Anyway, I'm thinking this book might be like a little nibble on some good dark chocolate: just the right amount of sweetness while packed with heart-healthy flavinoids.  Thanks, Willie!

Drinking the Kool-aid

I'm a long time fan of Touré and his writing for Rolling Stone, so I was thrilled to get an advance copy of his new book Never Drank The Kool-Aid last Christmas. I'm writing about it 6 months later not because I didn't like it but because I did, so much so that I haven't stopped reading it since December.

There are very few books that writers can use as reference for how to write. Lots of writers have written books on writing which to me seems entirely redundant and self-absorbed. Method writing, or the process of memorizing styles and forms and constraining yourself to them, is archaic and counter intuitive and can't possibly spur a creative mind on to creative thoughts.

What really works for writers is reading the best work of other writers, and that's why I've kept Never Drank The Kool-Aid on my bedside table for months. Actually, it's in the drawer in my bedside table, along with a pocket Bible, a half-filled journal, some pens, and a dictionary. These are the tools of a real writer, tools I'm certain Touré uses to transpose his thoughts to paper, tools that turned his stories into a writer's workshop.

If you need inspiration, guidance, or just some great beach reading this summer, pick up his book and don't ever put it down.( And if you send him $25, he'll even autograph it for you.)

Alternative Nation

It's been such a rainy spring out here in CA, I think everyone needs the new book AlternaCrafts to hold them over until the sun shines again. It's full of more than 20 fun low budget projects for a rainy day.

Jessica Vitkus will show you how to make a purse out of pants, hot to use soda bottle lids for pendants, and how to create pretty, handmade note cards from scratch. It would make a great gift for your favorite teen friend who loves to cut stuff up and make more stuff from it! 

And to think I've always wondered how to turn a pair of jeans into a skirt.

Before I became an internet geek

Way back in a time before laptops and internet (I know, shudder), I used to hang out in coffeshops and actually read books (so old school!).  In my college town in Missouri, there was a coffeeshop I loved not just for its super cute waitstaff, but also for its overflowing bookshelves, filled with the kind of reads I could get lost in for hours and hours.  One book that had such an effect on me was How I Became Hettie Jones, a story about a 1950's leftist Jewish intellectual woman who left her conservative home in Queens for New York's Greenwich Village where she married controversial black poet and activist LeRoi Jones.  In Greenwich Village, she struggled to carve a writing career for herself while balancing a bohemian life that included supporting her husband and rubbing shoulders with cultural icons like Allen Ginsberg, Thelonious Monk, Jack Kerouac, and Billie Holiday.

I was so engrossed in her story, and the meta-story of a generation, that I sat at that coffeeshop and finished the book in one afternoon.  It became the book that set off a summer of reading frenzy for me: Joyce Johnson, Diane DiPrima, Vivian Gornick, Dorothy Parker, and started shaping the way I saw myself as an independent, young woman-wannabe-writer.  From time to time, I still re-read passages in some corner of a coffeeshop just to remind myself of that magic I felt upon the first discovery.

Much about history

I'll be the first to admit I am not a fan of Sarah Vowell. That's why it took me a year to finally read Assassination Vacation after everyone in the world recommended it to me. I finally picked it up and read it in two days, it is awesome. In three chapters she tells the compelling stories of the assassinations of Presidents Lincoln, Garfield, and McKinley and reveals incredible details about the men who killed them.

And I'm not even going to tell you about the Robert Todd Lincoln effect! Gah!

It reminded me a lot of one of my favorite books, Confederates In The Attic by Tony Horwitz. They're both beautifully written stories of the authors' love of history, Civil War-era politics, how our founding fathers are remembered, and how we've changed since they lived. If you love history or don't think you know enough about it, pick them both up today.

 

Next up: Books made of money and chocolate!

Today I found the coolest innovation to book since the table of contents: It's called The Beach Book and it's 100% waterproof! Yeah, that's what I said! What????

The page and the cover are made with some kind of weird DuraBooks technology that make them feel plastic-like and resist water, wear and tear of any kind. The book is slightly heavy (weighing in at about 1.5 lbs for 200 and so pages) but it's a small price to pay to not spoil the stories inside.

Check it out, and check out their other release, The Soothing Soak: A Bathtub Book.

Target Bookmarked Club

I have no idea how long this has been around, but Target has this thing called Bookmarked, kind of like their version of the Oprah bookclub. The difference being that Target can do no wrong, and Target doesn't publish a magazine named after itself with its own face on the cover every month.

That is so weird to me. Seriously, does she need to be on every cover?? She's the only Oprah out there, does she really think we won't know which Oprah magazine is hers?

Anyway, Bookmarked lists new releases, best sellers and it even helps you organize your own book club online and offers recipes for fun appetizers and drinks. It's social networking for bookworms, and is so, so cool. And if that wasn't enough, Bookmarked members get special discounts on books all year round.

Take that, OPRAH.

BOOKS ARE NOT ROMANTIC!

Awwwww, it's almost Valentines Day. That means every mother fucking thing is on sale! Woo hoo!

And Cupid has even aimed his price slashing arrows to one of my favorite stores, McSweeney's. Their staff has compiled a list of favorite sale-priced books for V Day and are sharing the savings with you, dearest readers and lovebirds. Check them out, but keep in mind: BOOKS ARE NOT ROMANTIC. THEY ARE PLATONIC. YOU DON'T GET SEX FROM A BOOK.

Unless of course it's like a mint condition first edition hardback of Walden, or a subscription to McSweeney's Quarterly Concern. (Or The Believer back issue bundle, that one'll give you some potentional.)

Slight update: Holy fuck, a combo subscription! I'm in love!!!

2gether 4ever

This is one of the sweetest and funniest books I've seen in a long time. Written by Dene Larson, it's full of real love notes from a Jr. high Casanova, chronicling his loves and losses on painfully folded binder paper.

A perfectly cute gift to give this Valentines Day to someone you think you might like like.

Thumb Thing!

Picture this: You are in a nice bubble bath, trying to keep the pages of your romance novella open without getting the pages all wet. Or, you're propped up in bed under the glow of your itty bitty light and after just a few chapters of American Sphinx your hand is throbbing from forcing the pages flat while you sit up. Or you're out lying on a cool patch of grass, reading The Alienist, and the wind keeps pulling your book apart because you can't keep a strong grasp on it.

Introducing the Thumb Thing. It's a clever little crest of plastic you slip over your thumb that holds the pages of your book open while you read. There's nothing more to say other than How come it took all of humanity billions of years of evolution to come up with something like this?

It's always a stupid little piece of plastic that changes everything, isn't it?

True Love 101

I picked up this book, Anthropology 101 True Love Stories, the other day wandering through the Book Cellar in Lincoln Square here in Chicago.  It wasn't the title that caught my eye -- it was all the pink!!

Then I started flipping through it and was mesmerized by the stories inside -- all love stories, 101 of them.  Some are sad, some are heartbreaking, some are funny, all are beautifully written, and all are 101 words.

"Anthropology's macabre humor builds imperceptibly, story by story and girlfriend by girlfriend, until it reflects with surreal accuracy how we try to complete ourselves through — or at the expense of — another. Read it to laugh and forget your sorrows; read it to recognize and remember your delights; read it to discover a vivid, provocative new talent."

A wonderful gift (Valentine's or not) for that lovesick, literary person in your life.  Not that I'd ever know a thing about that.

Better than Onesies!

If you're my age (about 30, more emphasis on the about), then chances are you have at least one or two friends settling down and makin' babies.  I know, boring!

Anyway!  Since you're all hip and what-not, you'll want to skip the traditional gifts of onesies and rattles and get the new parents something they can really use, like this book from The McSweeney's Store. 

Maybe they'll even take the hint and have a cocktail ready for you when you're forced to come over and watch them burb fucking the baby.