A book festival.

Check out this awesome poster for the National Book Festival.

Netflix for books.

This seems like a good idea until you get to the pricing scheme. The cheapest plan is $19.95 per month to have three books at once. Why the hell do I need three books at once for? Unless my whole family is in on the plan. I think I will stick with the library (btw, Spook Country is waiting for me to pick it up … excellent). {Via}

A book for hip-hop heads.

I stumbled upon Check the Technique: Liner Notes for Hip-Hop Junkies by Brian Coleman and immediately added it to my to-read list. The premise of the book is simple—Coleman talks with the artists behind some of the best hip-hop album albums of the 80′s and 90′s. His objective is to backfill the detailed liner notes that are often absent from many hip-hop albums.

You can read an excerpt from the book about the Beastie Boys‘ album Check Your Head. Apparently the B Boys were huge mix tape nerds while making the album …

There was another DJ angle to Check Your Head, as Yauch explains. “Back then we had kind of a battle with different pause-tapes [homemade DJ mixes made without an actual DJ mixer, using the pause and record buttons on a tape deck to simulate a cut-and-paste-style DJ mix] we were making and playing for each other. The tapes we were making would jump around with different styles, just quick parts of different songs. Hip-hop to jazz to funk and whatever else. And in a way, Check Your Head ended up being like one of those pause-tapes.”

Mario C agrees with the pause-tape description, and recalls, “Every night when we’d hit G-Son, it would be like show-and-tell, because we’d all be trying to come up with the best tape. Eventually, everybody would show up with a whole record bag instead of a tape, and we’d all take turns showing off records we had just found. That album is definitely one big mix-tape, because it evolved from bits and pieces of everything, from them playing live to all the new samples we were using.”

Where do you get your books?

I was checking out The Jim Whimpey Blog (who is also the creator of the new theme I be rocking on this here blog) and I came across this post about how much books cost these days.

Most of the books I read come from the library. You may not always be able to find cool books like this at your branch, but there is always something good to read. Go library!

I will happily except a wedgie and/or swirly for the last sentence.

Loads of monsters.

I recently finished reading Monster Blood Tattoo: Foundling by D.M. Cornish and I really enjoyed it. Here is the synopsis from the site …

Set in the world of the Half-Continent-a land of tri-corner hats and flintlock pistols-the Monster Blood Tattoo trilogy is a world of predatory monsters, chemical potions and surgically altered people. Foundling begins the journey of Rossamund, a boy with a girl’s name, who is just about to begin a dangerous life in the service of the Emperor. What starts as a simple journey is threatened by encounters with monsters-and people, who may be worse. Learning who to trust and who to fear is neither easy nor without its perils, and Rossamund must choose his path carefully.

Complete with appendices, maps, illustrations, and a glossary, Monster Blood Tattoo grabs readers from the first sentence and immerses them in an entirely original fantasy world with its own language and lore.

Cornish’s Half Continent is probably one of the most interesting fictional places I have ever visited. The book itself contains a 100 page index and excellent illustrations by the author (like this one, check out Cornish’s illustration site).

I give it

A chronicle of strange encounters.

I will have to add Encounters with the Strange and Unexplained to my “to read” list when it comes out.

In the summer of 2006, award-winning photographer Matt Hoyle took a paranormal road trip across the United States. He photographed 60 witnesses to alien spacecraft, murky swamp creatures, and demonic house poltergeists.

Chronicling these encounters through both written and photographic profiles, Hoyle presents a spectrum of specter-loving and -loathing believers in Encounters With the Strange and Unexplained.

Check out a gallery of photos and stories from the project.

{Via}

Speak softly and carry a titanium spork.

Gotta get me one of these …

 

This comes via William Gibsons’s blog. Speaking of Mr. Gibson, his new book, Spook Country, has been released. I really enjoyed Pattern Recognition and I cant wait to get my hands on this one. Off to the library to reserve my copy.

No seat for you.

Remember those big cushy chairs at your local bookstore? Well you probably won’t see them much longer. It seems that they make it real easy for a person to sit and read a book without purchasing it. Maybe bookstores could use one of these security machines. {Via}

I also love Beth Cooper.

I Love You Beth Cooper by Larry Doyle is very funny and worth the time it will take you to rip through its 272 pages. You’ve seen this movie before (Dazed and Confused, American Graffiti, a little Revenge of the Nerds, and just about every John Hughes flick form the 80′s) but don’t let that stop you from picking this one up.

The story is raunchy, fun, and chocked full of great characters. Plus the illustrations of the main character’s face as he is beaten and bruised throughout the story are awesome.

I give it

Judging a book by its cover.

The cover art on Dark Harvest by Norman Partridge is amazing. I will have to pick this one up.

[Via]