ANIMAL » BOOKS

Lullaby Paired With Pitch Perfect Narrator

Bucky Turco — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 15:00:18 +0000

In its current form, Go the F*ck To Sleep, is a perfectly fun “bedtime book for parents.” Written by Adam Mansbach and illustrated by author/artist Ricardo Cortes, the soothing collaboration does not coddle the child rearing experience, it subverts it. And yet, the book just got even better with this audio version narrated by Samuel L. “Fucking” Jackson. Available free for a limited time here.

Coloring Book for Aspiring Cholos

Bucky Turco — Fri, 06 May 2011 20:54:30 +0000

Swedish illustrator Oscar Nilsson is so fond of lowrider culture that he created a coloring book in homage to it. Big Body Caddys, Chevy Impalas, Buick Rivieras and other classics are all represented in this 64 page softcover published by Dokument Press. It’s perfect for car enthusiasts or those who don’t think coloring book choices should be limited to cuddly animals and fairy tale characters.

Russian Writer to Bind Book in His Own Skin

Marina Galperina — Thu, 05 May 2011 18:00:44 +0000

Maksim Aleshin has already hired a craftsman who’s agreed to peel him when he dies and make human skin bindings for two very limited edition books… but he’s only half-way through writing the damn thing. The 40-year-old author is hoping to get $100,000 in postmortem moneys, all willed to his daughter. She’s eight and thinks Dad’s “crazy.” Aw…

William S. Burroughs Banned in Turkey?

Marina Galperina — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 14:00:45 +0000

An Istanbul council wants a William S. Burroughs’s 1961 novel banned for “vulgarity,” “slang,” “a fragmented narrative,” “attitudes permissive to crime,” myths and “hurting people’s moral feelings.” Bill, you immortal badass.

READ Up!

Bucky Turco — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 23:22:08 +0000

A graffiti artist with far too many names to list is rereleasing a book that will enamor some and completely bore the shit out of others. Preview it here.

Deitch Selling Graffiti in a Book

Marina Galperina — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 16:30:23 +0000

To complement his Street Art and Graffiti MoCA Extravaganza coming in April 2011, gone-west curator/critic Jeffrey Deitch is releasing a new book – Art in the Streets. It will feature a long chronology of graffiti and street art that his sort have figured out how to sell, from Jean-Michel Basquiat on, but do we really need another book on graffiti? Will it be on par with some of the movement’s cult classics or merely be a hefty gallery guide? On the book cover: TWIST’s Deitch Wall, appropriately.

What Convicts Read

Marina Galperina — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 19:10:32 +0000

The Diary of Anne Frank, Robert Greene’s rapper-approved Machiavellian manual The 48 Laws of Power and anything by Sylvia Plath – those are some con-popular books, a Boston prison librarian’s memoir reveals.

So, despite a 60% illiteracy rate, cons are relating to Holocaust victims and depressed privileged damsels, meanwhile reading up on power tips like “conceal your intentions” and “discover each man’s thumbscrew.”

The inmates’ critique of author photos is also insightful. Gabriel García Márquez: “That man is a liar.” Flannery O’Connor:

She looks kind of busted up, y’know? She ain’t too pretty. I trust her.

Crime stuff is most popular though, especially novels about incarceration, which doesn’t seem very escapist as a distraction from boredom and the threat of rape.

Leave Hunter S. Thompson Alone and Die Christopher Hitchens

Marina Galperina — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 15:02:34 +0000

Here’s a travesty brought to light by The eXiled: Christopher Hitchens wrote an introduction to Ancient Gonzo Wisdom (a Hunter S. Thompson interview book) and shat on it.

Hitchens barely grazed Thompson’s presence and is the last person that should be speculating about his suicide. Yet, Hitchens was allowed to write that Thompson killed himself because of “the strain imposed on him by visitors who wanted him to be outrageous” – you know, for show! Surely, it had nothing to do with the fact that Hunter outlived his own life expectancy and didn’t feel like suffering through another Bush term or some other, less offensive theory.

And so, Hitchens the dummy demagogue (because taking the Bible 100% literally isn’t wise, whether you’re a Christian or a so-called atheist), uses the introduction to drone on how Hunter’s questioning of 9/11 is a signature of a “basement-dwelling paranoid.” Ramon Glazov calls it like it is: “As Anita Thompson’s case demonstrates, widows aren’t necessarily sharp enough to notice leeches and tell them to get fucked.”

The Book-Scent Challenge

Marina Galperina — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 21:33:23 +0000

The New Yorker staff scribbled up a list of book-inspired perfumes that will have the literate chortling contently. Great Expectations Splash has a hint of moldy old mansion and the Sex and the City Eau de Toilet is “an aged blend of vodka, vermouth, spermicide, and buttercream frosting, bottled in a flask. Slosh it on, ladies.” Suggestions?

Please think of something better than my American Psycho Cologne: a bold flower-scent. Comes in a distinguished package with subtle off-white colouring, tastefully thick, and oh my God, it even has a watermark.

Please.

Oregon’s Hippie ‘Tea Party Bookshop’ Changes Name

Marina Galperina — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 18:00:09 +0000

The owner of the Tea Party Bookshop in Salem, Oregon is changing the store’s name to Tigress Books, because, no, they don’t know when the next rally will be, but here’s a schedule of this month’s Pagan meet ups.

Owner JoAnna Kohler wanted the store to be associated with “independence, revolution, anti-corporation” and not a cult of frightened, Beck-babbling hicks. With a “not affiliated with the political movement” sign on her door, she waited for it to fizzle out, but no such luck for any of us. |Image: Gumption|