We aren’t where we were 10 years ago when these major chains were starting to dominate the market and push small indies out. We are way past that. Those indie stores are now gone and unlikely to make a comeback, and there are a lot of places that only have Borders and Barnes & Noble left. There are a lot of communities that depend on these stores for jobs, books, and culture. Keep in mind, this isn’t just the collapse of a major chain that we should all go dance in the streets with wild shouts of “HOORAY! DOWN WITH CAPITALISM”, this is the collapse of a huge part of the book industry and this particular collapse is a clear representation of the problems bookstores, especially independent bookstores, are facing all over the country.

Almost weekly I get another newsletter talking about another bookstore that is closing down. And where is our business going? Just like Borders, indie business is going to Amazon. As much as I want to be hopeful when I sell a kid a Beatles record and see a copy Naked Lunch in his hand plastered with a Borders sticker that next time… next time he will buy our copy. It’s actually pretty likely next time he will buy it from Amazon. Recently, Bookshop Santa Cruz did research that showed that even people who consider themselves loyal to independent bookstores buy 4 out of every 10 books from Amazon. Last year, Verso Digital presented statistics that showed that of people who say they shop in independent bookstores, 26% only browse in independent bookstores then buy their books online. Customers ask me daily “Isn’t it cheaper to buy online?”. It’s hard to recognize that we, as independents, have a new enemy. There is still a lot of animosity left over from when Borders and Barnes & Noble took over the book market years ago, and even in writing this and knowing that Borders isn’t and hasn’t been our main competition in years, I still feel a little conflicted about the announcement that Borders is filing for bankruptcy.  Because of this, I feel the need to reiterate (to myself as well), this isn’t a victory for independent bookstores everywhere, this is a loss for booklovers everywhere, and hopefully a victory for a bookstore somewhere. Hopefully mine.

About a week ago in San Francisco, a few ambitious writers, editors, and designers (from publications like Dwell and Wired) gathered in the offices of Mother Jones to put together 48 Hour Magazine, an experiment in using crowdsourced tools to erase media’s old limits. The project involved writing, photographing, illustrating, designing, editing, and shipping a glossy magazine in a mere two days, as well as putting forth a transparent funding structure. The theme was, appropriately, hustle, and the inaugural 60-page issue is now available from self-publishing service MagCloud. I love the emphasis on both web-based tools and a printed end product. Hustle over here and get a copy.

Experimentation is alive in other corners of the literary world as well. Erinrose Mager and Ben Segal are assembling a book of blurbs about books that don’t exist, titled The Official Catalog of the Library of Potential Literature. They’re accepting submissions through July 15, so if you’d like to blurb a fake book, now’s your chance. Willows Wept Press will publish the Catalog in a limited edition.

Brooklyn-based indie publisher LoudMouth Press recently released a book based on a project by artists Carla Repice and Geoff Cunningham, titled The Office of Blame Accountability. Beginning in 2007, Repice and Cunningham—acting as Blame Accountants—set up a table, a typewriter, and a red telephone at such places as Ground Zero, Wall Street, and the Republican and Democratic National Conventions. They invited passersby to fill out Blame Forms (I blame:______ for: ______. My role: ______) or voice grievances into the red phone, in hopes that these acts would afford the opportunity for catharsis and reflection—and maybe even inspire action. The book, subtitled A Compendium of American Finger Pointing, collects all kinds of blaming scenarios, from major injustices to everyday minutiae.

Here’s another opportunity for writing something potentially cathartic (or at least fun): the Letters with Character project, in which you compose a letter to your favorite fictional character. The particularly great submissions are published on this here blog. Check out the ones already posted, such as the letter to Gatsby (of The Great Gatsby), to Seymour (A Perfect Day for Bananafish), and to Cathy (Wuthering Heights). They’re clever, hilarious, rambling, succinct, and just generally awesome.

Also in the experimental category (I think I’m just gonna go ahead and declare this National Literary Experiments Month): Independent arts magazine White Fungus recently relocated to Taichung, Taiwan, from Wellington, New Zealand, and released an eye-popping 11th issue. And have you checked out the new(ish) online journal Cerise Press? A collaborative effort between three French and American editors, it features poetry, prose, photos, artwork, reviews, interviews, and translations (with an emphasis on French and Francophone works). C’est magnifique!

Another new journal of poetry and prose, Little Star, was recently born. The first issue gleams with the talents of Seamus Heaney, Paul Muldoon, Lydia Davis, Padget Powell, Mary Jo Salter, among others. Edited by Ann Kjellberg, a former editor of the New York Review of Books, Little Star is poised to have no small impact.

Lastly, if you like to hang out in the Twitterverse, you should definitely follow some famous literary characters. I particularly recommend edgar_allan_poe (sample tweet: My most beloved iPhone app is the one that transmogrifies my phone into a bottle of absinthe.) and halfpintingllas, the Twitter account of Laura Ingalls Wilder (Folks really ought to keep their hands off their blackberries while driving. Leave them in the pail! You can eat them when you get home!). I’m not much of a Twitterer, but I love these little tweets from the prairie and from beyond the grave.

Photo by Flickr user su-lin

Some of the publishers I spoke with were branching out into digital formats, while others aimed to kindle interest in books better than a Kindle™ ever could. Whatever their approach, they all demonstrated a propensity for outside-the-box thinking. I interviewed Jen Loy and Kaya Oakes of the late, great Kitchen Sink magazine; Johnny Temple of the adventurous Akashic Books; and the creative minds behind Small Beer Press, Green Lantern Press, and Mule magazine (among others). I spotlighted the literary magazine and press Tin House, located in Portland and New York, and the Zurich-based publishing house Nieves, which specializes in good-looking limited edition zines and artist books.

Rather than revive that column, I’m preserving the literary theme and launching a new recurring feature, “Pressing Issues,” in which I’ll share a selection of news and notes about small presses, periodicals, and other bookish goings-on. Feel free to chime in: If you have any interesting literary news/notes/events of your own to add, please do so in the Comments section or email me at laura@laura-pearson-net. Onto the pressing issues…

Poised to baffle, muse, and bemuse, the legendary Chicago-based cultural and political magazine, The Baffler, is back. Founded in 1988 and published until 2007, the magazine reemerged in Jan. 2010 with Vol 2, Issue No 1. In this humdinger of an issue, the eds. declare, “…We are losing our faculties of inquiry at precisely the moment when public-minded scrutiny of our institutions is most needed,” going on to promise “a strong dose of our particular brand of scoffing: Strong ideas, elegantly expressed.” Reminds me of George Saunders’ essay, “The Braindead Megaphone,” in which G.S. proposes a remedy for shallow and sensationalistic mass media: “Every well thought-out rebuttal to dogma, every scrap of intelligent logic, every absurdist reduction of some bullying stance is the antidote.” The antidotal issue is available in stores and via subscription. (I got mine at Powell’s.)

Paul Harding just won the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for his debut novel Tinkers, an elegiac story of a clock repairman on his deathbed. It was published by Bellevue Literary Press, a teeny indie operation located in a tiny office in New York’s Bellevue Hospital Center. It’s the first small press to put out a Pulitzer-winning novel since 1981, when Louisiana State University Press published A Confederacy of Dunces. Turns out that “books at the intersection of the arts and sciences” are just what the doctor (and Pulitzer committee) ordered!

Speaking of small presses, last month was Small Press Month, and in case you missed it, the Chicago Tribune’s book blog, Printers Row, spotlighted a variety of local presses, including Agate, Haymarket, and Flood Editions. Works by these publishers (and tons more) are available for perusal in the newly expanded Publishers Gallery in the lobby of the Chicago Cultural Center.

April is National Poetry Month, and in celebration, CA-based independent bookstore, Diesel, is posting a video poem each day. Palm trees and Rumi, anyone? Meanwhile, the Academy of American Poets has launched Poem on the Range, a collaborative multimedia-mapping project in which people upload and geotag videos of poetic pilgrimages, landmarks, and roadside ephemera. Maybe someone could do a video recitation of Elizabeth Bishop’s “One Art” while standing by the company lost & found. Or how about an Anne of Green Gables-esque recreation of “The Lady of Shalott”? An endless range of possibilities, people.

Moving on…South End Press, formerly based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, moved to a new HQ in Brooklyn. The 32-year-old indie has opened an editorial office at Medgar Evers College (CUNY) and will partner with the school’s Center for Black Literature and the DuBois Bunch Center for Public Policy to sustain and grow SEP publishing initiatives. Also check out SEP’s other cool sustainability effort, Community Supported Publishing.

Other publishers have opted to go digital. According to the Media Bistro blog, eBookNewser, Graywolf Press and Melville House are among some indie presses that plan to release frontlist titles (and a bit of backlist) as eBooks.

David Shields’ collage-y, controversial manifesto Reality Hunger was published by Knopf last month, but did you know that before that, it was serialized in the fledgling literary journal Knee-Jerk? F’reals.

Those hungry for dessert, rather than reality, participated in the Seattle Edible Book Festival on April 10. This idea is so awesome: Participants make literary-themed culinary creations—food like The Bun Also Rises, Curd Vonnegut, and S’more and Peace—and are awarded prizes for “Most Pun-derful,” “Most Appetizing,” etc. My friend Kate, one of the organizers, posted some photos from last year’s fest.

This summer Chicago Artists Resource, a project of the Chicago Dept. of Cultural Affairs (full disclosure: I work for CAR) launches a new literary component, featuring Artist Stories (essays by writers, publishers, and other lit-minded people), informative articles, and links to opportunities and resources. If you live in/around Chicago, consider participating by emailing ideas or submitting an Artist Story. (Email literary@chicagoartistsresource.org).

We just learned the meaning of “hypocorism” and “couvade,” thanks to this list of all the words David Foster Wallace circled in his dictionary. It comes courtesy of the Ransom Center, the research library and museum at The University of Texas at Austin, which now houses the DFW archive. From “Viking Poem,” composed when he was six or seven years old, to obsessively annotated copies of Cormac McCarthy and John Updike books, the archive is sure to foster additional interest in the late writer.

Check back next month for still more pressing issues.

Almond is funny, and the self-deprecating nature of his discourse is part of his charm, but the presentation of self-publishing as some brilliant new innovation got me thinking about the elitism of the publishing industry in general, and a gate-keeper mentality that I hope to see destroyed in the next few years as technology forces the literary world to widen their view of exactly who can participate in the making of literature and books.

“I simply decided to publish the book myself. But the truth is more damning. I felt self-publishing was beneath me, the province of deluded wannabes. I still craved the legitimacy bestowed by a publisher,” says the author about his decision to go DIY with This Will Only Take a Minute, Honey. After explaining the process of developing and editing the book, he exhorts authors to think about self-publishing as a way to gain literary traction since the “old way of doing things is collapsing under the weight of its own inefficiency.” And here is where I start to wonder: What exactly is the difference between Almond printing up his books himself, and all of those people who stole Kinko’s copy keys back in the nineties (okay, maybe not everyone had to get illegal about their zine-making, but I did) for the joy of placing those cut-and-paste sheets of typewritten words,  confessional stories, tour diaries, band interviews, onto the glass pane to be copied over and over, stapled together and released to whomever in the world might stumble across this black and white masterpiece. I guess I’m just not getting what is so innovative about self-publishing when so many people have been doing it for years?

Granted, there ended up being a glut of “bad” writing out in the world during the heyday of the zine-era, but the opportunity was also opened up for good writing to get in the public sphere that would otherwise never have seen the light of day. I mean, Doris Zine, Evolution of a Race Riot and Cometbus have inspired me more than most corporate releases. DIY self-publishing is not something for “deluded wannabes” though Almond’s comment sheds light on why, when I told one of the instructors at my MFA program that I would just self-publish a collection of short stories if I didn’t feel like dealing with pandering to an agent and trying to shove my foot through the tiny crack in the New York publishing world door, she looked at me as though I was out of my mind.

On that note, one my 2010 resolutions is to read more under-the-radar (in addition to the more well-established) literary journals. Annalemma No. 4 is a beautifully designed journal that focuses on visual art and photography in addition to writing. The first two stories were solid and short, like quick bursts of energy. The photographs and illustrations in the magazine, especially the lovely fine-lined and colorful pen and ink illustrations of strange birds, by Justin Gibbens, are worth the price alone. I also picked up a copy of CakeTrain Issue 7, which leans towards more experimental forms of writing.  After reading the first few pages, I thought damn, there’s a lot of poetry in here; I’m not the world’s biggest poetry fan, my preference being solid blocks of text I can sink my teeth into. But a funny thing happened on the way to me shutting the journal and placing it underneath a stack of books where it would gather dust and neglect–I kept reading. And I began thinking about the simplicity of the poem, the challenge of telling a story or at least conjuring an idea, a thought, a spark with only a few words. And another funny thing happened after that, I actually took out my notebook and wrote my own poem. Weird.

The new Tin House is pretty fantastic. There’s a story in it by Antonya Nelson about a forty-something divorcee in Albuquerque who has lost control of her son, her mother-in-law and her own life. I’d like to be able to write a story like that, one where the ends are frayed but satisfying.

Musically, I spent the mid-point of January listening to the new Yeasayer on repeat. It’s the sound of Grizzly Bear in the bath with Stevie B. while a copy of Depeche Mode’s Violator plays on a cheap battery-operated boombox.  The new Rocky Rivera album is worth a spin as well. I heard a couple of her songs on Hard Knock Radio, and damn, that is some good stuff. Political, super-charged lyrics with a sharp flair. Just the kind of music we continue to need in this day and age, like a reminder of what is possible. Oh, and she put the album out herself, yep.

Opponents of the policy have long considered it a targeted attack on hugely popular conservative radio talk shows, while its supporters attempt to explain it as a necessary measure to ensure fair and balanced dispersal of information. The implications of the policy, if actually reinstated instead of used as rhetorical leverage, are troubling, and not just for conservatives. When it was originally instituted in 1949, policy makers were “worried that crafty special interests could overwhelm the airwaves with one-sided propaganda and [therefore] tilt elections, sway public sentiment or foment public unrest,” Jon Sinton wrote in an editorial for the Wall Street Journal. Back then, it was a logical move: broadcasting space was limited and licensed, particularly outside of the major cities. But by the mid-eighties, it became clear that such regulatory measures over content were certainly unnecessary and perhaps unconstitutional. The legislation was overturned and eliminated in 1987 by the Reagan administration-appointed Federal Communications Commission (FCC), thus beginning the conservative versus liberal battle over the policy. A bill introduced the same year to revive it was vetoed by Reagan.

Under the 102nd and 103rd Democrat-controlled Congress, the policy was legitimately re-introduced in 1993 to the House by legislation called the “Fairness in Broadcasting Act.” The attempt to re-instate the policy put conservative radio shows in a tizzy, particularly Rush Limbaugh, who erroneously dubbed it the ‘hush Rush’ bill, a name that continues currently. The bill was thwarted as Republicans gained power, and eventually took over, in the 104th Congress.

Hailing to the pattern, the current Democrat-dominated congress is once again talking about bringing back the Fairness Doctrine, and conservatives are once again rallying against it. In the last months of 2008, high-profile politicians like Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Senator Diane Feinstein (D-CA.) and Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY), publicly supported its renewal. Schumer even provided the discussion with its most popular sound bite when he said, “The very same people who don’t want the Fairness Doctrine want the FCC to limit pornography on the air. I am for that… But you can’t say government hands off in one area to a commercial enterprise but you are allowed to intervene in another. That’s not consistent.”

On the other side, Congressman Mike Pence (R-Ind.) introduced legislation in 2007 to permanently ban the policy. Republicans have speculated that with total Democratic control from White House to both congressional houses, such a bill does not stand a chance. They may not be far off with such a prediction, considering that no Democrats have signed the bill.  It is important to note that Barack Obama flatly does not support it, as his campaign press secretary stated in an e-mail sent to the industry journal Broadcasting & Cable.

Despite all this talk, no bill attempting to officially reinstate the policy has been introduced. So will the Fairness Doctrine, under that name or another, actually make it into legislation? One hopes not. Not only would the Fairness Doctrine: Act II be a really bad idea, it’s a markedly unnecessary one. The way we consume media has vastly changed since the policy was crafted in 1949. There’s a veritable buffet of media consumption options out there: thousands of radio stations–public-supported, advertiser-supported and subscription-based–dozens of news television stations; thousands (though the number is dwindling) of newspapers and print sources; and then there’s the infinitesimal space of the internet, a forum which allows anyone with an IP address the ability to hear and engage in controversial discussion.

The whole concept of the policy is based on the fact that people have scant resources for hearing about and understanding issues of public importance, which is simply no longer true. Both conservatives and liberals who consume media through a one-sided source do so because they want to, not because they have to. The Fairness Doctrine would therefore limit freedom for broadcasters.  And freedom should be protected, no matter who is championing the cause.

Join us as we break through the year’s rhetoric and double-speak as simply as we know how, and leave your own equations in the comments. For the historically minded, take a look at 2007’s edition.

Brigid Barry

Thrift shops > American Apparel
Why buy your ill-fitting 70s throwbacks from a misogynist who overcharges when you could buy them cheap and green from the used clothing store across the street?

Brigid Barry is a freelance copy editor based in San Francisco, CA. She is the Associate Editor of Is Greater Than and also writes short fiction and cultural analysis, and knits in her spare time.

Leland Cheuk

The Economy > The Price of Oil > The Popularity of Private Jets

2008 was a very bad year if you were a corrupt politician, Gordon Ramsey, a UK social services worker, a banker investing in oil futures, or a Republican. But 2008 was much worse if you were, say, a private jet company reliant on flying executives of Sean John or the Big Three automakers. Not only did the price of oil cause Diddy to swear off Cristal-loaded private jets early in 2008. The nose-diving economy caused private jets to become a political football when GM, Ford and Chrysler executives flew into Washington D.C. to ask for what ended up being a $14 billion bailout. I hope 2009 is friendlier to companies like Onesky and Privateair so we won’t have to bail them out in June. After all, it’s not their fault that we’re in the bind that we’re in.

Leland Cheuk is is a currently an MFA candidate at Lesley University’s Creative Writing program. His writing has appeared in MostlyFiction, Punk Planet, and other publications. Recently, one of his short stories was selected as finalist in the 2007 Washington Square Review Contest. He lives in San Francisco and is working on a novel.

Leilani Clark

Mushrooms > Anything made by humans

In Cormac McCarthy’s novel The Road mushrooms are the first organic matter to grow after the an apocalypse brings on nuclear winter. While humans fall into cannibalistic disarray, the fungi keep on trucking. Tenacious and communicative, mushrooms are key to a thriving natural ecosystem. They make a simple hike in the woods into an awesome treasure-hunt. In addition, they are damn good to eat.  In 2008, you could listen to mycillium guru Paul Stamets talking about the glorious power of toadstools on just about every media outlet–from books to radio to YouTube. We should pull up a chair, take notes and learn something new that just might save the world.

Leilani Clark has written for Clamor Magazine and the North Bay Bohemian. She loves free media and defending the working class. She writes about more then mushrooms at www.leilaniclark.com.

Paul M. Davis

Reason > Superstition

The election of 2008 wasn’t only a triumph for those of us who have watched the last eight years in horror as the imperial President attempted to drag this new century into the 17th. Indeed, it was a triumph of a reasoned, pro-science, pro-progress mentality over the superstitious beliefs of the Christian Evangelical crusaders. But it was also the year in which the reasonable majority appeared to wipe the collected mung out of its eyes and return to its senses. To wit, the Republican intellectual schism of August and September 2008, in which numerous vocal figures dismissed the party’s insane Evangelical wing in favor of critical thinking. It was also the year in which a realistic appreciation for regulated markets emerged out of the ruins of post-Friedmanite, neoconservative economic policy. It was a year for sober realism over faith in destructive myths, and even if the reality before us is fucked, it’s preferable to living a collective fantasy.

Paul M. Davis is the editor and publisher of Is Greater Than. His Is Greater Than blog is Attencion!

Whitney Dibo

Gail Collins > Maureen Dowd.

Thank god the New York Times finally landed a female columnist who can write coherent, if shrill, commentary. Collins’ editorials around the election season were hilariously poignant and spot-on, as opposed to Dowd (whose idea of a productive use of New York Times editorial space is to write imaginary conversations between famous people). And Collins doesn’t even have a glamour-shot picture, (almost no makeup – gasp!) a sharp contrast to Dowd’s vampy smirk.

Harry Potter > Twilight

As a child of the Potter generation, it seems painstakingly obvious that to even put the two fantasy novels in same league is treason so high even He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named wouldn’t dare do it. Harry Potter is to the Imaginatively Curious as Twilight is to the Sexually Frustrated. I mean – the apple on the cover? Come on.

Whitney Dibo is a freelance writer and also works in the Education Department of Steppenwolf Theatre Company. She graduated from the University of Michigan in 2007 with a degree in English and Political Science.

Levi Fuller

Elective democracy > Direct democracy
In Washington, as in many states, “The People” lately have a huge boner for legislating via initiative.  Every once in a while this ends up being a good thing:  Smart, active citizens can ban together and pass legislation that our elected officials are too afraid or busy to pass (witness our recent “Death with Dignity” initiative).  For the most part, however, it’s a complete, unalloyed disaster that has our legislature and courts scurrying to and fro trying to manage the repercussions.

The most egregious recent example of this “tyranny of the majority” is, of course, California’s Prop 8.  Millions of church dollars went to hammer home the message that “traditional marriage” needed defending from the loony left judges who wanted men to marry men and gerbils to marry ducks and kindergartners to be indoctrinated into the ways of homosexuality.  Another, smaller example from Seattle:  Our City Council recently passed a $.20 per-bag tax on grocery shopping bags to encourage people to get reusable bags and curb the ridiculous waste of resources that occurs all day every day in grocery stores.  This bill was much more moderate than San Francisco’s outright ban on plastic bags, but of course it was still too much for the American Chemistry Council, who banded together to get a recall of this simple, sensible bill on the ballot for next year.  For now, the status of bags in stores is in limbo, and every time I shop at Fred Meyer the checker automatically starts putting my item or items in a bag without even asking.  Elective democracy isn’t perfect, and the initiative process can be a useful tool of last resort, but there are times when we should just let our elected officials do the job we elected them to do.

Levi Fuller plays music, DJs on the Internet, curates a quarterly series of compilations, and generally runs himself ragged in Seattle. www.denimclature.com

Matt Gajewski

Buying fruit at red light-stalled intersections > Buying subprime mortgages at red light-stalled intersections

In previous years, the lane line-tiptoeing hawkers at US-1 and Bird Road near my home were all about subprime mortgages: “Hungry and homeless and need investors for asset-backed securities,” “Will disregard borrower’s past credit history 4 food.” But with the housing bubble bursting, the global economy collapsing, 2008 was the Year of Intersection Fruit: sweet-smelling guavas, succulent mangos, to-die-for tamarinds and tangerines and papayas; investors clearly voicing their preference of juicy, vitamin-rich produce over risky, subprime collateralized debt obligations. Let’s hope that 2009 will be no less delicious, and that our nation’s intersections will remain a cornucopia of discount, indigent-vended citrus for many years to come.

Matt Gajewski hosts Pure Imagination, a radio program featuring darkly comic short stories set to music on 90.5 WVUM in Miami, FL. Listen to past episodes at www.vangloria.net/pureimagination.

Narinda Heng

Real food > Bacon-wrapped, deep-fried, gravy-drowned novelties

While I can see the fun in chicken-fried bacon (and am in awe of the genius behind the bacon weave), real food that can be eaten every day (without giving you a heart attack at 40) is infinitely more interesting. The appearance of people like Michael Ruhlman, Michael Pollan, and Alice Waters in mainstream media advocating more sensible, healthful cooking shows that there is hope that we might be able to fit into last year’s skinny jeans someday.

Narinda Heng is planning to start 2009 unemployed. She’ll be writing at Long Cool Hallway and wherever else she can get a word in.

Rob Miller

Hysterical hyperbole > bland euphemism.
The following are exact quotations from ABC World News Tonight as they have described the economic apoplexy during the past couple of months.
At least as we all get closer to selling pencils out of tin cups (or would the modern day equivalent be flashdrives?), we can rest easy that we will be suitably entertained as we watch the news (even if we might be looking at the TV through an appliance store window like a Dickensian waif cuz our electricity was cut off).  But still….

Thus, in order of appearance:

• Troubling downturn
• Confidence is ebbing
• Contracting economy
• The Dow is losing ground
• Has the Bull market run out of steam
• Grim jobs report
• Panic on the trading floor
• Cascading job loss
• Might send investors heading for the ledge
• It was a bloodbath on Wall Street

See?  Isn’t that more fun?  When we started, you could feel your eyes go droopy with the musty, lifeless talk.  Shit, it’s like you’re in some Econ 101 lecture after spending all night proving you CAN play Quarter Bounce with tequila shots instead of beer.  But by the end of the list, you can almost SEE Chuck Norris starring in the movie version with guts and explosions and falling buildings and cars driving through plate glass windows.
It’s more warming than drinking after-shave lotion.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Rob Miller is the owner and founder of Bloodshot Records.

Laura Pearson

Supporting independent booksellers > Buying books on Amazon or at B&N or downloading digital files to your ebook reader. (Plus, talking all about your Kindle just sounds gross.) As we all know, it’s getting more difficult to be an independent anything, and there are oh so many reasons to support nearby, non-chain stores (e.g., Of $100 spent at a local business, $68 stays in the community; whereas at a national chain, only $43 of your $100 sticks around (www.indiebound.org)). Most importantly, in an age where virtual experience often supersedes the tangible, real-world stuff, the time has come to get in close proximity to actual pages… Bookshelves. Book smells. Or to put it in another, lamer way: In 2k9, acquire a spine.

Laura Pearson is a Chicago-based editor and writer. She has written music news stories, as well as book, zine, and comic reviews, but her favorite subject to write about is people who are both contributing to culture and creating culture.

Erica Phillips

The Beijing Olympics > everything else

The rest of the world got served by China this August. From the awesome spectacle of the opening ceremony, to the mod and exemplar facility architecture, and the over-coverage, obsessive interviews and photo opps. The 2008 Summer Olympic Games was the shiny and bedazzling thing that made us all forget everything else.

We forgot China’s human rights record and the Olympic torch parades through Tibet, when residents were not allowed in the streets unless they promised to yell “Go China” and nothing else. We forgot that NBC was making it censorship-level impossible to find Beijing youtube footage anywhere on the internet. We forgot about the diplomatic mess between Russia and US-backed new “democracy,” Georgia. We forgot about Pakistan and Iraq and Turkey and everything, because China stepped up and we were like “Woah, it might not be all about us anymore.”

Erica Phillips currently splits her time between an immigration law office and the Venus Zine headquarters. She is editor / publisher of globalhuman and has written a few things for Love, Chicago.

Chanda Prescod-Weinstein

Cloud Cult, Feel Good Ghosts (Tea-Partying Through Tornadoes) > Any other new music I heard this year (or last year)
I heard a lot of great music this year, including great new stuff from Sam Roberts and Malcolm Middleton, but I feel that this album really just is 2008. Taste this bit from “Hurricane and Fire Survival Guide”:

“I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired
I’ll laugh my whole way through the hurricanes and fire
That’s why you don’t wanna bring me down.”

The first Black President of the US was elected. You just try and bring me down. I will laugh my way through hurricanes and fire.

Chanda Prescod-Weinstein is in the process of building a veritable cornucopia of degrees in physics and astronomy. The black hole of academia is a dark and dangerous place. In a perhaps related story, she also seems to be known as a trouble maker. Her Is Greater Than blog is Disordered Cosmologist Is >.

Elaina Ramer

1929 > 2008
None of the Wall Street dudes who were taking those huge bonuses from dying financial companies really lost much as the markets have crashed and, thus did not throw themselves out the windows of Manhattan skyscrapers. Bummer.

The Half Pint (8 oz.) > The Imperial Pint (20 oz.)
At some point a few years ago, I discovered that my fav local pub, the Poet and the Patriot, serves beer in 20 oz. glasses. I was delighted. This year I discovered that consuming more alcohol makes me neither healthier nor wealthier nor wiser and that the Poet also serves beer in 8 oz. glasses. If I’ve got to cut back, I’d rather sacrifice the quantity of my beverage rather than the quality.

The Wide Leg > The Skinny Leg
Just trust me; I’m right.

The Shoes > The Bicycle> The Public Transit > The Private Automobile
This is as much practicality as it is green washing. For those of us who live in urban areas, walking, cycling, and taking transit are things we do and things we could afford to do more often. Each of the things listed above are affected by the price of gas and the political situation (listed from least to most affected). But when gas hits $10/gallon and people are rioting in the streets, you’ll still have your boots and no one is going to set your bicycle on fire.

Elaina Ramer is a fashionista, bike messenger and radical economist living in Santa Cruz, CA. She completed most of a degree in Global Economics before she dropped out of college to pursue enjoying her youth. Elaina blogs about fashion and global politics at frugal and hep dot com.

Boaz Vilozny

pretty good > best
Let’s face it—it was nice being the world’s dominant nation for a while back in the 20th century, but who wants to deal with all the pressure? It’s high time we stepped back and let someone take over as superpower #1 while we get our own house in order. Any volunteers? China? India? Cuba? Anyone? What if we throw in Afghanistan and Iraq?

Boaz Vilozny is a native of Santa Cruz, California, where he is currently completing his doctoral research in organic chemistry at UCSC. When not busy thinking deep thoughts about molecular recognition, he spends time with his family, plays music, reads, and cooks.

Two weeks ago, the New York Times announced that American military action in Iraq and Afghanistan had come to an end. If you missed this piece of breaking news while watching Fox and Friends, or didn’t catch it in your RSS news feed, there’s good reason: this wasn’t the old Gray Lady announcing the end of the war, that venerable one-time home of fabulist Jayson Blair, the allegedly leftist mouthpiece that gave safe harbor to WMD cheerleader Judith Miller. Instead the news was broken by the New York Times Special Edition, a mock recreation by a grassroots army comprised of activist groups and individuals.

Responses to the paper were mixed. The popular narratives attempted to parse the project as either a would-be Onion-esque parody, or as a throwback to ‘60s merry pranksterism, one rendered moot by the recent election of a center-right Democrat to President of the United States. Bloggers drilled into the minutiae, pointing out that the faux-Lady didn’t follow the New York Times’ style book or house typography, and obsessing over minor spelling errors. The Times‘ response was one of official bemusement, while media outlets ranging from Fox News to Gawker glibly dismissed the project’s content as a “liberal wishlist”.

The paper was distributed by volunteers on the streets of New York and other major American cities on November 12th. Quickly after its release, activist group The Yes Men claimed sole credit for the paper, a point contested by others involved (the group later released a long, if incomplete, list of contributing groups). Activist and author Anne Elizabeth Moore was intimately involved in the production of the paper, but left five weeks before its release due to disagreements over its direction. As she explains in this interview with Is Greater Than, the utopian New York Times had as tortured a birth as any major daily newspaper.

PMD: How did you get involved with the fake New York Times project?

AEM: Steve Lambert, who sort of started the whole discussion, invited me, originally to contribute. We had been working on stuff together for awhile beforehand–the AAAFFF–and had developed a really good solid collaboration. He asked me to contribute to the paper, and I was like, “uh, but who’s going to edit?” There was this sense that, like, papers come together sort of magically. I was like, that’s not the way it works. How it works is with someone really dedicated to getting that paper out the door needs to do that. And with something like this, where all the different lies have to come together to form a unique whole that is still believable, well, it was going to take some serious effort. So I did it.

PMD:What was the original concept for the project, and in what ways did the finished product differ from it either in tone or intention?

Photo by Flickr user ConwayL

AEM: Originally, we’d agreed that it would be an anonymous project, that no one would take credit for it, because that’s where the power in this was: in the sense that it had genuinely come from an unseen force of “the people”. I think that’s still a really powerful idea that no one’s really explored artistically, and that’s what’s sort of important for me to put out there. ‘Cause the project turned out to be, ‘a couple guys in New York pulled some crazy prank,’–that’s sort of inconsequential in my mind. At least as activism, although also as art. How does that shift any power structures or misconform to any notions of how the world operates? And there’s another way.

Also, of course, the paper itself changed after I left the project. A ton of stuff was cut–much of it the most engaged critical stuff. Maybe stuff that took on the Times too closely, out of fear, I don’t know. Perhaps coincidentally, most content by female contributors was cut. (Because you know, I was making my ideal paper, and my ideal paper addresses women’s issues and seeks out women writers, and also has a lot more comics and editorial cartoons than most papers we see today). This content shift was actually a much bigger problem than, like, who claimed credit for what. This was where writers–original contributors to this vision–started to get screwed. When their work was changed or dropped without consultation, I mean fake paper or not, that’s really exploitive of people’s labor, and just generally kind of unethical. Made more disturbing by the utopic vision and structure of this paper. Because whose ideal vision of the future includes having their contributions ignored or changed without consultation? Which is sort of a great lesson in how supposed utopias operate, I guess.

But originally the paper was a minor part of the plan, in a way. The end goal was this massive street party, this humungous celebration that people could come by and get sucked up into and everyone would kind of accidently be celebrating the end of the war without ever having thought it through. The paper was the originary element–it would be the thing people were holding up while dancing about the end of the war. Which is, again, still a really great idea: massive street parties to celebrate something that hasn’t exactly happened yet, particularly when we’d originally hoped to do it, over the summer when it just seemed like the Bush Administration, and the war in Iraq, would never end. And neither did this really proceed as planned–the party was fairly modest, as I understand it.

PMD: Since there were a number of activist groups involved, I imagine the initial planning stages were rather democratic, but any publication demands some sort of editorial hierarchy, even a fake publication. How was that internal workflow organized?

Josh Bayer’s editorial cartoon for the Original Fake New York Times

AEM: Right, I mean: publishing is a whole different ballgame from, like, artist’s bookmaking. It demands deadlines, oversight, which you don’t know unless you’ve worked in the industry. Especially if you’re expected to be believable as the New York Times. Generally speaking, the artistic temperament is far too ego-driven to conform to collaborative demands like agreed-upon deadlines. So I’d be working with the writers toward these crazy deadlines, and then the date of the paper would change. That was frustrating, of course, and in terms of the last few months, a pretty interesting publishing problem. Every delay allowed for humongous political changes to take place as the election cycle unfolded. It was intense, reading the paper every single day trying to envision a “solution” to it. And then when the economy was pronounced so thoroughly fucked, it was like, acch! The thing that’s going to make everyone want to party now is totally different than it was a month ago! Although by that time I’d left the project.

But the point is, the place for the democratic participation was these street parties. The democratic aspects of the *paper* were: you send in your ideal news or human interest story, the thing you’d love to read or write if the world were to get totally fixed tomorrow, and I will fix all the other parts of the paper so that your vision is viable. Ha ha. I will make that happen. Although only in text.

PMD: At what point did your interests diverge from the direction the project was taking?

AEM: I’d been really cautious from the beginning that my efforts–and the efforts of the many many people I brought on board this project–not be ultimately co-opted to further forward the brand of the Yes Men. I’ve personally had enough of my efforts going toward brand names I don’t actually believe in, and I’d only agreed to to work on this project as long as it would remain an anonymous project. When I was told much later in the process by one of my collaborators that “it was never the intention to put this paper out anonymously,” it became clear that, at least, everyone had totally different intentions and desires.

Well, and the one thing that’s really important to note is that the paper was done: conceptualized, written, edited, laid out, illustrated, when I left. Even if I didn’t believe in it anymore, I wanted to make sure they had all the pieces in place to do this right. Because it’s a good idea. I think the project that resulted is a tenth as good of an idea as what it could easily have been, however.

PMD: On your blog, you note that you felt that the prank had overtaken the purpose. Did you fear that the prank-like nature of the project was overshadowing the intent? Was there fear that the project would be dismissed as an extension of ‘60’s era, whimsical activism — as it has been, in much mass media?

Photo by Flickr user ConwayL

AEM: From the first time I heard about it, this project was about limiting the degree to which people could dismiss this as silly, a prank, some kind of utopic bullshit, or impossible. Separate from our plans to do this anonymously, we’d also planned this crazy triage system for these street parties, where people who were wearing crazy outfits would go off to this other area and only celebrate, like not distribute the paper at all. People who were too much about, like, “we’re gonna screw the New York Times! Those suckers!” Or people who were too interested in engaging this as a power struggle.

So there was always this concept that this could be dismissed, and I think it was, as you say. “A group of liberals released their wishlist for the new administration,” was the lead phrase in most of the news stories I read. Gaaaah! Like, “Kid Writes to Santa Hopes for Better World!” This is not news! What’s news here, what’s interesting, is that thousands of people banded together to work on something truly radical, truly emergent, something that could have inspired genuine change. But those interests were sidelined.

And so what happened, right, is that The Yes Men here first became the symbol that simply replaced the New York Times as the people in power. For a moment, the positions were reversed. Ho ho! It’s not the New York Times that has all the power, it’s these guys that look and act like the guys at the New York Times and live in the same city and have similar economic and racial and backgrounds. Which is a very disempowering way of thinking about power. As Foucault argues, power actually comes from everywhere, and what I was excited about in working on this project was that we’d proposed a way of articulating that. Power seemingly coming from everywhere.

I was talking to Mark Messing the other night, here in Chicago. He was talking about this project, and here it was immediately dismissed as a kinda funny joke. Which itself is really interesting: the shift in power that actually occurred between the election and, what, eight days later when the fake NYT hit, was tremendous. Already, Chicagoans were like, “New York? Why should I care?” Anyway, he was comparing this turn of events to this film he’d just seen of Fred Hampton talking about the Yippies. That all these white dudes went to jail and a ton of “awareness” was raised about the issues they were talking about, and a ton of money was raised to get them out of jail, and awesome! But in the mean time, Hampton’s out creating a free breakfast program for poor students on the South Side, actually out making real change. My point is not that anyone here is Fred Hampton, but how much “awareness” can you raise before you actually try to make change?

PMD: What is the sense among other groups and individuals that were involved about how this has played out. I don’t expect you to speak for other groups, but to the best of your knowledge, was other groups taking their piece of the credit for involvement an antagonistic move or rather an attempt to set the record straight?

AEM: I’ve heard, and witnessed, a lot of frustration with how this went down. A lot of people felt their efforts were misused and misattributed, but there’s also this sense that, as the editor of a culture paper told me, anyone who speaks up about the weird issues here risks being labeled a naysayer, or “not down with the cause”. I mean, that’s ridiculous. I am clearly down with the cause. I just think our means of achieving ends can always be bettered. Here in particular. And here are some ideas for you! Take them and do something more awesome. It’s really much easier than you can imagine.

But thank god for that the Globe and Mail piece that came out that basically said, “Really? We’re gonna believe two dudes put this thing out and raised $100,000 to do it and printed 1.2 Million papers? I mean, they did lie about the name of the paper.” I was genuinely beginning to believe that there wasn’t a single thinking soul in media anymore. So the record’s being slowly straightened. Although I’d be most excited if every single one of the contributors I contacted stepped up, or gave me permission to post their stuff. It’s genuinely amazing how many people, and who, and where, were on board this thing.

PMD: What is your understanding of the current or potential legal implications of involvement in the project?

Raghda, the UnAmerican Girl Doll, an Iraqi who works as a prostitute and comes with accouterments. Unattributed.

AEM: You know, I was out recently with this man who was like, “But since the paper was given away, copyright doesn’t apply!” And it just made me realize that people still don’t get intellectual property rights issues. Of course both copyright and trademark laws apply–like they applied when that grade school painted Mickey Mouse on its classroom wall, and like when the Girl Scouts sang Happy Birthday or the Macarena or whatever it was. So we were really careful–or I was. Consulting lawyers and really getting into that aspect of it. Of course I did. So when I started working on the paper, there was this really big issue sort of sitting there in the room like an elephant that I ignored for a little while until I couldn’t. And it was this: that we were originally using the framework of the NYT to simply make a fake NYT. Like, we were committing copyright and trademark infringement directly, with nothing underlying it except for the desire to use the stature and form of the Gray Lady for what it was, to release our message. That’s not even parody, that’s just mimicry.

So we started talking about it more, trying to get into what it was about the NYT we wanted to say, which was, “you are a part of–and a BIG part of–these problems, because you failed to cover the antiwar movement, you hired all sorts of fake reporters to tell us lies, some about the war (Judith Miller!) and some more generally, just eroding public trust in journalism for the sake of it, and you accept advertising and sponsor things and own a crazy variety of other media outlets and non-media entities, all with an intent to profit from culture, not document it factually.” And that’s when it got interesting, for me, as this long-standing media activist. That’s when we started writing the corrections page, some of which ended up in the final version. I’m going to post the couple of pages we got up on Democracy Guest List, one of these days. Because compiling all of those things, not just as accusations, but as documented facts, was overwhelming. That’s when it was like, “oh shit. The NYT is a teeny bit abhorrent.”

Of course, we were in consultation with lawyers across the country, had a whole class in law school that took this on as the semester’s project, big name lawyers, small name lawyers, one dude who misspelled “libel.” That was concerning. Some of them are starting to get some action: DeBeers, the diamond company, wasn’t so fond of the culture jammed ad on the Special Edition’s website and started demanding their Internet provider pull it, and the EFF leapt into action pretty immediately. And, you know, so far, the “real” NYT’s put on a good-natured face about the whole thing.

PMD: Were you surprised by the Times’ public bemusement to the project? How has their legal/non-official response to the project differed from their public front?

AEM: No, of course they had to go along with the joke, and the final version of the paper, and the fact that it didn’t address the economic crisis at all, I think it made it easy to dismiss on all sides, as non-offensive, and a step or two away from being timely. But the Times is one of the most protective entities in the world — and how I know this I won’t go into — so I’ll be surprised if we’ve really seen the very last of this. But maybe!

PMD: What are you taking away from this experience about the current activist climate in the United States?

AEM: This is totally a good question. I have been frustrated by the activist climate in the US for awhile–I’m sure most thinking people have been–and this project was intended to revitalize the hope that must drive demands for political change. But that even this dippy utopia-realized, C’mon,-guys!-we-can-do-it!, fake newspaper project has been sacrificed to the demands of the market, to this overriding need to put a big name behind it and dismiss it, that’s been a bummer.

Well, but much of activism right now is so focused on raising “awareness.” In other words, focused on attracting media attention. When I was working with Codepink over the summer, my hopes were to build a website for them so that they could really skip the part about attracting media attention and go straight to telling the stories they felt like weren’t being told. Because we know already that the media is a broken system, and will never get our stories right, because it will only tell the part of the story that sells. So as activists, is it even worth our while to try to get attention from a broken media? I mean, even this project–that aimed to question the legitimacy of the New York Times–was measured in media appearances. Or is it better to go straight to making our own, not in putting out one fake New York Times but generating a regular resource for positive news? Or, as Fred Hampton might argue, is it better to improve our situation now. I feel like, we had a chance with this project to do something radical–put out a fake paper filled with all sorts of good news–but do it in a way that established a new model for collaborative work. And while it didn’t work out that way, I’ve seen a way that it’s possible.

Editor’s note: It must be noted, in the spirit of full disclosure, that Anne Elizabeth Moore was my editor at the defunct Punk Planet magazine, remains a friend, and approached me to join in the fake New York Times project, a request I was unable to oblige due to other commitments.

Looking for a specific way to help preserve your independents? South End Press is in the running for a $20,000 grant from the quirky website Ideablob.

The small, social justice-oriented press became a candidate for the grant via its Community Supported Publishing (CSP) Program, designed to promote sustainability in independent publishing. Like Community Supported Agriculture, this effort helps make available a steady crop of quality books. Now the CSP Program is up against seven other “ideas” in Ideablob’s July Showdown, and the winner receives a generous grant.

To help South End Press receive these much-needed funds, visit ideablob.com and cast your vote. Voting closes July 31, 2008.

-Laura Pearson

I asked writers, publishers, booksellers, distributors, teachers, editors, and supporters of independent publishing—some of whom have been featured in this column, some who have not—to provide a list of recommended reads for summer. Their suggestions range from short stories to comic books, from classic fiction to contemporary poetry. There’s a book recommendation for “people who think they’re scared of Shakespeare” and one for people who cook with a cast iron skillet. Other publications feature beautiful illustrations (The Never Mind) and soaring titles (Oh Pure and Radiant Heart). And let’s not forget such vibrant inclusions as World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War (an audio book read by Henry Rollins and Mark Hamill) and Thank You and You’re Welcome (an “entertaining volume of ‘Kanye-isms’” from the humble pen of Kanye West).

Yes, some of the items on the list are simply meant to inspire lighthearted literary recreation during the summer months. But in keeping with the reverential tone of this column, I’d like to give props to all the great stuff included below that was released by small presses on shoestring budgets. In fact, I encouraged participants to mention their own work—zines or books they’ve written, recent titles they’ve released—in hopes that you’ll seek out these fine publishers and publications, for summer reading and beyond!

So enjoy the selections below, and whether you’re embarking on an epic road trip, taking your lunch break in the park, or floating on a raft in the waters of Fiji whilst drinking a piña colada out of a coconut shell, may you never be without good reading material.

Without further ado, the summer reading list:

David Lasky, Comics Artist and Teacher

Don’t Go Where I Can’t Follow, by Anders Nilsen (Drawn and Quarterly)

Escape From Special, by Miss Lasko-Gross (Fantagraphics)

Happiness? An 826 Seattle Comic Book (826 Seattle) — I edited this.

365 Days, by Julie Doucet (Drawn and Quarterly)

Lone Wolf and Cub, Volume 16: Gateway Into Winter, by Kazuo Koike and Goseki Kojima (Dark Horse)

Hunter Clauss, Freelance Journalist and Chicago Public Radio Contributor

Crime, by Alix Lambert

The Killing Joke, by Alan Moore

Y: The Last Man, Volumes 1–10, by Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra

Novel of Roy Orbison in Clingfilm, by Ulrich Haarburste

Fantomas, by Marcel Allain and Pierre Souvestre

Jocelyn Burrell, Editor, South End Press

Books I truly wish I could read again for the first time:

Play It As It Lays, Joan Didion

Incognegro: A Memoir of Exile and Apartheid, by Frank B. Wilderson (South End Press)

The Collected Stories, Leonard Michaels

Ariel, by Sylvia Plath

Sister Outsider, by Audre Lorde

Jonathan Messinger, Co-Owner, featherproof books

The Facts of Winter, by Paul LaFarge

Jamestown, by Matthew Sharpe

Nellcott Is My Darling, by Golda Fried

Oh Pure and Radiant Heart, by Lydia Millet

I Am Death, by Gary Amdahl

Kathryn Lebo, Development Associate, Richard Hugo House

The Real West Marginal Way, Richard Hugo — memoir

The Egg and I, Betty MacDonald — memoir

Set This House in Order, Matt Ruff — fiction

The Cast Iron Skillet Cookbook, Sharon Kramis and Julie Kramis Hearne — cookbook

Dog & Me, Kary Wayson — poetry

Kaya Oakes, Writer and Former Senior Editor, Kitchen Sink magazine

Reading Comics, by Douglas Wolk — An excellent critical overview of both underground and mainstream comics that will be interesting to both comics addicts and laypeople. Newly out in paperback too, for all of us who are too poor to buy hardcovers.

Catching Tigers in Read Weather, by Andrew Demcak — One of the most powerful, kick-ass books of poetry I’ve read in ages (and I wrote one of his cover blurbs!). It’s from a very cool small press called Three Candles.

Shakespeare the Thinker, by A.W. Nuttall — A fascinating analysis of Shakespeare’s—well, thinking, and not too dense or overly academic. Good for people who think they’re scared of Shakespeare.

Anything from the 33 1/3 series of books about albums — Good for a few hours of informative and entertaining music-related reading.

The Braindead Megaphone, by George Saunders — Proves that essays can be entertaining. When people talk about nonfiction being dry or dull, this book is a good counteractive weapon.

Liz Mason, Manager, Quimby’s Bookstore

The Bad Lyrics Project, by me: Liz Mason! — I am very proud of this zine. It’s a sociological study of sorts of rock music lyrics. I personally think it’s very funny and entertaining, but then I’m the author!

Caboose #5: The Health and Recreation Issue, also by me: still Liz Mason! — A look at my adventures in the world of both traditional and alternative medicine with my weirdo undiagnosed illness (which has since been diagnosed as Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a type of cancer, but I’m doing pretty rockin’, all things considered).

The Body Has a Mind of Its Own, by Sandra and Matthew Blaksee — This book is authored by a mother-son science writing team. It’s all about maps in the brain and how they’re affected by what goes on around you. Heavy shit, but they make it light and fun.

Autobiography of a Yogi, by Paramahansa Yogananda — What I like about this book is that occasionally the author has some nice spiritual experiences that make the story juicy, but he learns a lot on the way, which makes him seem like a regular person.

Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex, by Mary Roach — The same author who wrote Stiff (about human cadavers) and Spook (about the afterlife) tackles sexual physiology in a hilarious and PERSONAL research book chronicling what happens during the ol’ in-and-out.

World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War, by Max Brooks — This is read on CD by a full cast, and the cast rocks! Henry Rollins, Carl Reiner, and a bunch of other folks—even Mark Hamill, who is actually really good. The price ($14.99) is about what you’d pay for the book in soft cover, so you might as well get the CD set. Max Brooks, by the way, is Mel Brooks’ son, in case you’re curious. This book is all about the zombie war that came close to eradicating humanity. Very apocalyptic and dark, but totally compelling.

Mairead Case, Managing Editor, Proximity magazine

Awe, by Dorothea Lasky (Wave Books)

Black Sabbath’s Master of Reality, by John Darnielle (Continuum)

A New Quarantine Will Take My Place, by Johannes Göransson (Apostrophe)

Lust, by Ellen Forney (Fantagraphics)

Kill All Your Darlings, by Luc Sante (Yeti)

Novel of Roy Orbison in Clingfilm, by Ulrich Haarburste (Serapion)

Shoot the Buffalo, by Matt Briggs (Clear Cut)

The Age of Flowers, by Umberto Pasti (Pushkin Modern)

Beauty Talk and Monsters, by Masha Tupitsyn

Any interview Sylvere Lotringer ever did (most on Semiotext(e))

Chronology, by Daniel Birnbaum (Sternberg)

Complete Minimal Poems, by Aram Saroyan (Ugly Duckling)

Selected Poems, by William Bronk (New Directions)

On the Lower Frequencies: A Secret History of the City, by Erick

Lyle (Soft Skull)

Dancing After Hours, by Andre Dubus

Cabinet magazine’s Colors column

Marco Kane Braunschweiler, Co-Owner, Golden Age

The Never Mind, by Robin Cameron — A small limited-edition drawing publication with a lot of funny transcriptions of real and fake conversations.

WON magazine, Volume 1, Issue 2, Autumn 2008 — Featuring: Daniel Wang, Will Sweeney, Aaron Rose, Ken Werner, Mårten Lange, The Changes, Nienke Klunder, Robert Cook, Thobias Fäldt, Amanda Maxwell, Linus Bill, Jeremie Egry, Andrew Long, Thomas Baldischwyler, Ben Barretto, Hoger Czukay, Vernon Treweeke, Deanna Templeton, Matt Wolf, Rosemary Scanlon, and Sarah Larnarch.

Wikipedia Reader, by Various Artists — For this project, the publisher asked artists with varying interests to create a thread of linking Wikipedia articles starting with something they found interest in, and continuing to other topics from links within the page. The results are a group of similar or dissimilar topics that are all linked together linearly. This is a really fresh, tasteful book.

Accounting for Dummies, by Somebody — Seriously, this is really good to read.

Kingsboro Press, Volume 1, Issue 3— Sixty-four pages of Riso printed glory. Features interviews and work with artists like Inka Jarvinen, C.W. Winter, Kim Hiorthoy, Karma International, plus writing from KBoro regulars like Alex Gartenfeld, Yan Yan, and Jonathan Basile.

Martine Syms, Co-Owner, Golden Age

Getting Things Done, by David Allen — For all rippers and rulers.

Modern Typography: An Essay in Critical History, by Robin Kinross — I’ve been trying to get through this all year. Maybe now I’ll finally have a chance.

Appendix Appendix, by Stuart Bailey and Ryan Gander — The perfect conceptual art supplement to marathon TV watching (available at Golden Age).

The Kingsboro Press, Issues 1–3 — My art/design/culture periodical of choice (available at Golden Age).

Thank You and You’re Welcome, by Kanye West — The man, the performer, and the poet graces us with wise words. I got it for free, but it’s still priceless. I’m trying to find a way to make it required reading for my students this summer.

Richard Nash, Publisher, Soft Skull Press

All About Lulu, by Jonathan Evison (Soft Skull)

Black Flies, by Shannon Burke (Soft Skull)

The Good Fairies of New York, by Martin Millar (Soft Skull)

My Zorba, by Danielle Pafunda (Bloof Books)

The Changeling, by Joy Williams (Fairy Tale Review Press)

Zach Dodson, Co-Owner, featherproof books

Bicycle, by Paul Fattaruso (St. George Press) — This clever little book will make you want to ride your bike all summer long.

This Will Go Down on Your Permanent Record, by Susannah Felts (featherproof  books) — Our first young adult novel. Set over a dramatic, nostalgia-drenched Nashville summer.

Paper & Carriage, Issue 3 (Green Lantern) — A beautiful letterpress cover and Henry Darger inside! How could you go wrong with this Chicago-based  “slow media” magazine?

The Order of Odd Fish, by James Kennedy (Delacorte) — Reading this debut young adult novel by Chicago author James Kennedy is better than a nuzzle on the nose from Aznath, the Silver Kitten of Deceit!

boring boring boring boring boring boring boring, by Zach Plague (featherproof books) — I uncomfortably recommend my own book to anyone who is listening.

Mule magazine, Issue 5 — It’s mystical!

The Mayor’s Tongue, by Nathaniel Rich (Riverhead) — It starts off with an awkward sex scene. Need I say more?

Why the Devil Chose New England for His Work, by Jason Brown (Open City) —Save this lachrymose short story collection for a rainy indoor day.