Bye, Dudes / Look How Awesome I've Been

This is officially my last blog entry for the Green Apple Core, and my last day as a Green Appler (for reals this time). I'm moving on to work full-time with my film company, French Press Films (shameless plug). It's been a crazy few years for sure, but my favorite part has definitely been creating the Green Apple commercials.

They started silly and low concept, but then eventually got more and more involved-- you try telling Daniel Handler that "this is the part where the cyborg army attacks."



I know we post that one a lot, sorry. The Kindle videos were huge for us, created by me, Pete, "Simple" Nick, "Internet Sensation" Stephen Sparks, and Alex & Joelle at 4SP Films. They're still raking in thousands of hits. As for the Book of the Month ads, almost every single commercial we've done has garnered responses from the authors (Still waiting for that call, Herzog!). You can watch them all on our YouTube channel here. My favorites are still "Little Bee", and "Conquest of the Useless".

(I'm the creepy dude on the right)

Working at Green Apple has been the best job I've ever had. I have friendships that will last me a lifetime, and piles of books that will last me throughout the upcoming zombie apocalypse. Whether you're a customer or a hard-workin' employee, remember that you are standing in the middle of one of the greatest bookstores on the planet.

BYE!

Cookin' With Green Apple Books

I could be wrong here, but it seems like we don't really mention our incredible COOKING section on the ol' blog. And that co-owner Pete leaves awesome lists of our favorite cookbooks periodically on San Francisco food blog Tablehopper.

So check it out! For cold days like these, there's Clifford Wright's Best Soups in the World, and of course, David Chang's memoir/cookbook Momofuku, chock full of amazing recipes for broths and ramen!


And while we're talking about RAMEN, the streets are buzzing about the new ramen truck circling Hayes Valley. Consider this our plea to bring the love over to the Richmond. We're cold here.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Today, we're going to refer you to this post over at local blog SFist:

We know. Money is tight. Very tight. But people are starving in San Francisco. Not just the homeless, but people you might even know. People close to you. Your friends and family and neighbors. Seriously.

Which is why, even though we stuck this plea in yesterday's Day Around the Bay, we're going to bring this up again today: SF Food Bank has a great dollar-for-dollar (up to $10,000!) deal going on right now. But you have to give today. Why? Because the dollar--for-dollar deal ends tomorrow. [This was posted yesterday, so it ends today, Wednesday 11/25.]

Please visit SF Food Bank for more information, to send them a donation, or whatever. Can't afford to give? No problem. You can share this link on your Facebook page, spam it to your pals with disposable incomes, or Retweet it. Just do it today, please.

SF Food Bank, for those of you who don't know, provides nutritious food to low-income families in San Francisco "to ensure that no one goes hungry this holiday season or any time during the year."And in this seemingly endless recession, they're hurting. Bad. Help them out, won't you?

You can donate via credit card (minimum 2 dollars). I sure did. Please donate today before this offer ends!

Video: Book Covers with Chip Kidd

Graphic designer Chip Kidd explains what goes into making an awesome book cover:



Spotted at The Book Design Review.

Also, I was delighted to hear this exchange in the store between a mother and her little nerd-to-be:

Mom: Would you like this book I found on 101 Dalmatians? Or do you want that book you got about wizards...?
Kid: WIZARDS!
Mom: Are you sure? The dalmatian one looks more interesting...
Kid: WIZARDS!!

He'll be wearing a cloak in no time.

Signed and on Sale: Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer

We have signed copies of Jonathan Safran Foer's latest, Eating Animals, now on sale for 20% off! We have a limited stock, so if you're an early holiday shopper.. this is one ideal gift. Don't sleep on this, son! Cop this now!

Green Appler Jenn has this to report from Mr. Foer's event at the Jewish Community Center last night: "He signed until we got kicked out of the building, and even bought a copy for a vegan lady!"

What a nice fella!

Book of the Month Commercial #9: Running Away by Jean-Philippe Toussaint!!

Be gone, Overwhelmed By Books Disorder!

Our November Book of the Month has its very own commercial. Why did it take so long to get a new commercial up, you might ask? Well, you might want to ask our star, Mr. Nick "I Ordered Two Fruit Baskets, Now Get Out of My Dressing Room" about that. Anyway, we're very excited about our new BOTM, Running Away by long-time staff favorite Jean-Philippe Toussaint.


Nick says of the book, "Toussaint's latest [translated] novel pulls the reader into a jet-lag reality of adventure and complications--this book moves--when an unnamed man goes on what he considers a vacation. He had only one small task for his girlfriend, which pulls him into the foreign land of Shanghai, then speeding through the night to Beijing. This novel is always immediate, yet it has a tender feeling. Toussaint's usual (albeit unusual) understanding of the human condition shines in Running Away.

A paperback original, too, so it's only $12.95."

You can't beat that with a bat!

"Shelf Life": Songs About Books n' Reading

So we've been cooking this up for awhile-- and though we're definitely not the first to tackle this, we did try and make this one as original as possible. Of course we couldn't avoid some obvious choices (Elvis Costello, but c'mon, that song is fantastic). We also didn't want this to look like we just went into our iTunes and searched for "book." It's definitely an eclectic mix, but hey, so are we. It's a generalist's mix. How about them apples?

Here's the tracklist. Click below to download in Zip file format (from zShare.net 55.23MB).

1. Bo Diddley, "You Can't Judge A Book By Its Cover"
A classic. Not exactly related to reading, but you gotta admit this is kind of clever.

2. Scholastic Deth, "Bookstore Core"
I needed help finding obscure songs, so I turned to my greatest resource-- my fellow Green Applers. I asked Appler Jeff M. for assistance, and within seconds he recommended now-defunct hardcore group Scholastic Deth. The ending says it all: "Even if I had / All the time in the world / I doubt I could / Read all the books / That I should / Bookstore Core!"

3. Talking Heads, "The Book I Read"
4. Belle & Sebastian, "Wrapped Up In Books"
5. Echo & the Bunnymen, "Read It In Books"

6. Elvis Costello, "Everyday I Write the Book"
If this song comes on when I'm drinking, it gets pretty embarrassing. Same with the Misfits' "When Eagles Dare". Bad dance moves and fist pumping.

7. Last Emperor, "Secret Wars (Prince Paul Remix)"
The only hip-hop track in the bunch, "Secret Wars" takes its title from the Marvel Comics saga of the same name. But here rapper Last Emperor reimagines his favorite superheroes taking on legendary lyricists, and an epic war ensues. A must hear for Last Emperor's dead-on impressions. Comic books are books, too.

8. Bloodhag, "Iain M. Banks"
This one's from fellow Appler EH. Apparently this band screams about science fiction writers, they play shows in libraries, and pummel their fans with paperbacks during shows. HOW DID I MISS THESE GUYS? Good luck deciphering their lyrics.

9. Modest Mouse, "Bukowski"
I know, obvious. A good song, even if it does make us look like hipsters. I think it's too late for that.

10. Camera Obscura, "Books Written For Girls"
11. X, "Adult Books"
12. Magnetic Fields, "The Book of Love"
13. Seabear, "Libraries"

ENJOY! CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD! (there are ads all over this site. we don't take responsibility for them.)

A Sunny Day In the Richmond?

It's a slow day here at the Green Apple blog, since it's beautiful out. Hope you're out and about in this sunny weather! Hit up the Bluegrass Fest in the Park! Give Emmylou and ol' Billy Bragg my regards!

And now: a picture of a cat reading. Enjoy.

A Few Questions For You

Is this the Harvard Bookstore or a miniature model? Mad props to Flickr user Carmel Kozlov:



and also, who (besides fancy interior designers) sorts their books by color??:



How do you sort your books? Alphabetically? Chronologically (by author's birthdate or date of your purchase)? Hmm?

What a day, what a day, what a DAY!!!

It's a perfect 78 degrees without a cloud in the sky! What?!? Stunning weather in the Richmond district of San Francisco, and during summer of all things? Where's the fog? Where's the cold? Where's my hat? I've got to get out of here and enjoy it... There's just so much to do today (like The Outside Lands music festival in Golden Gate Park, or Jeff Kent being honored on the Giants walk of fame) that i've really got to wrap this up and hit the streets...
So, I'll pass the buck a bit by passing along some book related links. Hope you've got WiFi access on the beach, but if not, remember that you could be enjoying a corker of a tome while sporting gobs of SPF30. First, a DIY approach to classroom curriculums from The New York Times, and secondly, yet another kick to Kindle's crotch courtesy of David Byrne (via boingboing).
OH, yea. . .above is a photo I took some time ago of Metallica's Lars Ulrich, getting on the reading kick. A daily bookend, if you will, to Roman's amazing post from this morning.

A Kindle in Every Backpack.

The Democratic Leadership Council has proposed "A Kindle in Every Backpack," (click for PDF file) a program designed to replace every kid's bookbag with a Kindle full of e-textbooks. Sure, it might lighten the load of their backpacks, but would they use them any more than their books?

The Council argues, "The ‘Kindle in every backpack’ concept isn’t just an educational gimmick—-it could improve education quality and save money."

For $300+ a Kindle, and the fact that Kindles aren't exactly durable, these guys aren't really thinking this through.

Imagine a teacher saying, "turn to page 115, please" and everyone starts clicking. Or a kid walking up to a teacher and saying, "I couldn't do my homework, my books are broken."

Read more at the New York Times blog here.

And Speaking of Videos...

Our latest Book of the Month ad (for Werner Herzog's Conquest of the Useless) has been picking up buzz from blogs all over the place, including the publisher, Ecco Books!

This mention is from fellow indie bookseller Thomas Riggs & Company:

Green Apple Books of San Francisco, one of the best-loved independents in the Bay Area, is creating an atmosphere all its own with videos to promote its Book-of-the-Month recommendations. These decidedly low-budget videos feature scruffy-looking but enthusiastic staff members hamming it up in testimonials, “dramatizations,” and “reenactments” related to the featured book... the videos have some infectious appeal, and they’re getting more sophisticated...

Thanks for the mention, but... who you callin' scruffy-looking???


Watch the mentioned ad (if you haven't already) here:

FOUND: Adorable note

As stated in previous posts, we find a lot of great stuff in the books we buy back from the community. Though they range from frightening to downright hilarious, this is definitely the cutest, sweetest thing I've ever seen:

Graphic Novels 101

A lot of people roll their eyes when they hear the words "graphic novel", especially in a bookstore. The very idea seems to give people the idea that they're juvenile or disposable. Thanks to writers like Alan Moore (Watchmen, From Hell, V For Vendetta, all made into horrendous movies that he had nothing to do with), the graphic novel is a medium that can explore facets of storytelling that plain old literature, and even film, can't touch (note above, the movement from a tiny detail all the way up to the first line of dialogue).

And graphic novels in series format can go even further, like Robert Kirkman's zombie opus, The Walking Dead. Stretching nine volumes and still going, this zombie story isn't just your average shock fest. While being character-driven, it deals with the idea of humanity being stripped of money, government, and technology-- and right back into "survival of the fittest". Oh, and there's a lot of entrails. Think more early George Romero than Lucio Fulci.

Y: The Last Man is about an epidemic that kills the male population of the planet, and what happens when one man survives. It's not the cheesy porno set-up you might think it is. What follows is a ten-volume epic that's planned and executed brilliantly, jumping from comedy to drama and back again. There's a reason why the author, Brian K. Vaughan, is now an executive producer and writer for ABC's Lost.

And now for something completely different: Bone, by Jeff Smith, has been heralded as one of the greatest graphic novels of all time. Riding the line somewhere between cartoon and fantasy and action-adventure, Bone is a series that is deceiving at first glance-- it looks like a kids' book with its adorable protagonists and woodland creatures, but soon becomes covered in monsters, quests, wars, and all that good fantasy stuff. And I don't even like fantasy! I even dare to say this one manages to tug at the ol' heartstrings occasionally.

So there you go. Hopefully these get you started and then eventually addicted.

Book of the Month: K Blows Top!

Our June Book of the Month ad is here for Peter Carlson's K Blows Top! See Pete's entry below for more on the book.



And look for the acting debuts of Shoe-bashin' Pete and Kevin "What's My Motivation?" Ryan. Thanks, guys!

The Prophet Eggers Speaks: "Print is not dead!"

Dave Eggers had this to say at a fancy Authors Guild event in New York about the state of print media (from the New Yorker):

"Nothing has changed! The written word—the love of it and the power of the written word—it hasn’t changed. It’s a matter of fostering it, fertilizing it, not giving up on it, and having faith.

Don’t get down. I actually have established an e-mail address, deggers@826national.org—if you want to take it down—if you are ever feeling down, if you are ever despairing, if you ever think publishing is dying or print is dying or books are dying or newspapers are dying (the next issue of McSweeney’s will be a newspaper—we’re going to prove that it can make it. It comes out in September). If you ever have any doubt, e-mail me, and I will buck you up and prove to you that you’re wrong."

R. Crumb on a sneaker?

R. Crumb's art is now on Vans shoes. Here's an excerpt of a write-up from the LA Times:

Four different R. Crumb shoes are due to hit store shelves on Oct. 1; two in the Vans Classics collections -- including the Mr. Natural deconstructed SK8-Hi pictured above ($60) and a classic slip-on featuring Fritz the Cat ($52) -- will be available through regular Vans vendors.

Two additional higher-end styles (using suede and leather) will be sold through Vans Vault accounts; a "Modern America" Chukka boot ($95) and a "Keep on Truckin' " Authentic ($90).

Hoo boy, you'll look great stomping around in your R. Crumb leather shoes. I'm holding out for the Shel Silverstein flip-flops.

What Obama's Reading

It's both silly and refreshing that people are tracking what President Obama is reading. Apparently he's been spotted reading Joseph O'Neill's Netherland:



Check out more at the New York Times' book blog, PaperCuts.

Wearing Words: The Literary Tattoo

There's a growing trend of "literary tattoos", tattoos that pay homage to readers' favorite books and authors. But just by poking around Google Image Search a bit, it's clear that bookworms aren't excluded from the world of friggin' bizarre tattoos. Whether it's huge portraits of Henry David Thoreau (on the left side) or William Faulkner (right) , a chunk of Fight Club on your torso, or Dumbledore's disembodied head covering their backside, even the Bookworm's tribute to their favorite authors and works go just a bit wrong...

But that's not saying there aren't some good ones. The one above has a memorable line from Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five, "Everything was beautiful and nothing hurt."

Contrariwise is a fantastic blog full of user-submitted literary tattoos (the title taken from Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass), most of them simple and clever, ranging from Ayn Rand references to the Golden Apple from Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea's Illuminatus! Trilogy.

Happy Record Store Day!

Today marks the 2nd annual Record Store Day, where independent music retailers across the country encourage music lovers to step away from the computer, face the sunshine, and walk into your favorite neighborhood record shop. With corporate heavyweights like Virgin Megastore liquidating their inventories, now is the time for the little guy to shine.

Here at our Green Apple Annex (520 Clement St.) we feature new, used, and rare vinyl, all lovingly handpicked by our two music professors Scotty B. and Johnny P. (but please don't tell them I called them that). Our CDs range from buzz bands to something off the beaten path and pretty much everything in-between, again all selected by us.

So whether you're venturing into our 'hood or not, support your local record store (and here in this city, we've gone tons). And when you do come by, we promise you we won't treat you like this: