Skylight Books

Too good not to link to...

2012-01-12T18:57:00.001-08:00

A whole different side of Dan... And check out the rest of Emily's Corpus Libris blog if you haven't over the years...

Skylight's Top 50 of 2011 UNCUT

2012-01-02T21:25:00.000-08:00

Hello Friends and Lovers! I wanted to share an unedited, unexpurgated, FULL list of our top 50 bestsellers of 2011. This includes books we've sold in the store, books we've sold at offsite events, books we've sold in bulk to businesses or nonprofits or arts organizations, and even some that could technically be called journals, but that we think of bookishly (here's lookin' at you, SLAKE).

Drum roll, ladies and gentlemen. The number one seller for 2011 was...the paperback version of...

1. Just Kids by Patti Smith

2. A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
3. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
4. Tattoos on the Heart by Gregory Boyle (hardcover)
5. The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides
6. The Wealth Cure by Hill Harper
7. Secret Stairs by Charles Fleming
8. Tattoos on the Heart by Gregory Boyle (paperback)
9. Eisenhower: The White House Years by Jim Newton
10. Bossypants by Tina Fey
11. Lies That Chelsea Handler Told Me by Chelsea Handler
12. 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami
13. Go the Fuck to Sleep by Adam Mansbach
14. The Pale King by David Foster Wallace
15. The Barbecue Bible by Steven Raichlen
16. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
17. Spork-Fed by Jenny Engel and Heather Goldberg
18. Fine on Acting by Howard Fine
19. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
20. Los Angeles Stories by Ry Cooder
21. Zombie Spaceship Wasteland by Patton Oswald
22. Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin
23. Slake #2 edited by Laurie Ochoa and Joe Donnelly
24. Save the Cat by Blake Snyder
25. Thank Heaven by Leslie Caron
26. Hark! A Vagrant by Kate Beaton
27. Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart
28. Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson
29. Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann
30. Dance With Dragons by George R. R. Martin
31. Jack Kennedy by Chris Matthews
32. Unlikely Friendships by Jennifer Holland
33. Blue Nights by Joan Didion
34. It Chooses You by Miranda July
35. Daytripper by Gabriel Ba and Fabio Moon
36. Tinkers by Paul Harding
37. The Help by Kathryn Stockett
38. If You Ask Me by Betty White
39. Imperial Bedrooms by Bret Easton Ellis
40. Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
41. Room by Emma Donoghue
42. Clash of Kings by George R. R. Martin
43. Challenge For the Actor by Uta Hagen
44. Life by Keith Richards
45. The Girl Who Fell From the Sky by Heidi Durrow
46. Writing Movies for Fun and Profit by Thomas Lennon and Robert B. Garant
47. The Sisters Brothers by Patrick Dewitt
48. The War of Art by Steven Pressfield
49. Look at Me by Jennifer Egan
50. Veganist by Kathy Freston

and, because I just can't resist...
51. Freedom by Jonathan Franzen (Hardcover)

Remember that whole Franzen/Egan kerfuffle back in the earlier part of the year? Well, it seems that Egan has won, quite handily, in THIS house...

bird poop palimpsest # 13

2011-11-16T20:38:00.000-08:00

Franny + Emily = Felinus Corpus Libris

2011-10-11T13:10:00.000-07:00

We had an event with Jeffrey McDaniel, and I kept hoping I'd find Franny sitting long enough to pose for a photo! Finally! Corpus Libris gets a cat shot to go with the dog shot and the ape/evolution shot. (<3 you always, Frieda. But you gotta grow your hair longer if you wanna cover those babies up...)

Crowdsourcing is fun! Y'all rock! Bookstores, take note!

2011-09-14T09:56:00.000-07:00

Before the rebel bookselling panel we had last Sunday, I posed this question to our customers and fans -- in the store, on Facebook, and on Twitter:

What is the first thing that makes you say "Now THAT is a great bookstore?"

Responses from the live audience included "an excellent staff, events that show imagination, signed books, unique titles, an atmosphere with a pulse, room to sit and read, and interesting shelving categories." (Thanks, Wendy, for keeping track.)

Here are the responses from Twitter:

they buy remainders from me

unique displays, fun staff, great events

my book on the shelf :)

when all I know is a character's name and half the title yet the bookseller knows what I'm talking about!

friendly and knowledgable staff, warm atmosphere, good selection.

Diverse books on front table.

staff that are proud bibliophiles w loads of unexpected reccmndations!

A place with oversized sofas so you can browse comfortably.

The layout feels organic and not designed by corporate focus-group.One wants to wind around the shelves, not be marched thru.

Something I've never seen before.

A great bookstore... 1. has staff that remembers what I like to read and bases recommendations accordingly; and 2. has a cat.

A live animal in residence, of course!

A great bookstore, in my opinion, has more Gaddis, Beckett, and Atwood on its shelves than Dan Brown and Stephanie Meyer.

Big, comfy chairs to read in.

If no diet, business or self-help books take up your front displays, you're a great store.

revolving display

my answer: Emily Pullen. Or else, no blank walls or empty shelves. Books in every possible place.

A clear and navigable website where I can find phone #, address and hours in less than five seconds

And the responses from Facebook:

When I realised that there was an entire other store front nextdoor!

CAT.

staff

When they have an annex dedicated to graphic novels.

Well written shelf talkers.

Cool, friendly staff, good music playing quietly in the background and a cat sleeping in the window. That's a good bookstore.

The presence of a completely unique shelving category. You've got the wordless "weird stuff section," Beckham's in the French Quarter in New Orleans has their "True Crime and Rascality" section, Housing Works in Manhattan has their "Racist Old Books" section. All good book stores need some specific, idiosyncratic section.

Honestly? Stock that doesn't have any dust on it, sales people who straddle the line between knowledgeable and stalking me/security, no cat, no bakery attached, table lamps and floor lamps, quiet music in the background and an ability to take my money/tell me what's in stock even when "the system is down".

Variety, staff recommendations and a cozy, sit-and-linger environment.

Moments after walking in, you start randomly perusing books that you've never heard about and they ALL seem awesome.

an eclectic selection of books in every category. Love that you can get self-produced little chapbooks of local poets, graphic artists. The only other place I've seen that is at City Lights in San Francisco.

The obvious amount of care and attention put into it by the people who work there.

If I am unable to pass by the store without going in.

Carries my book... that I haven't published yet.

People in it who know books and authors without running to a computer.

A cat like Frannie

They have me do a reading! But seriously: funny shelf talkers, at least a little unique organization (e.g. a section on "crackpot theorists"), and people working who clearly care about books.

It *must* have a big tree in the middle.

A cat. Period.

Independence.

PS. Free beer never hurts. ;o)

bird poop palimpsest #12

2011-09-11T13:30:00.000-07:00

FLEA, long-time Skylight supporter, on books, Vonnegut, & Jane Eyre

2011-08-30T11:04:00.000-07:00

From the latest issue of Rolling Stone. Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers on books:

“Music saved me – and books,” Flea says, “Reading Kurt Vonnegut at 13, that was the shit that raised me, gave me a sense of ethics, what’s right in the world.” Flea is now an avid book collector. He owns a British first-edition printing of Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre, which he bought in London in 2004 for, he sheepishly admits, “a large amount of money.” I didn’t read it until my late thirties,” he says of the novel, “but it touched me – the resilience Jane maintains when faced with situations where everyone loses their dignity and kindness. She is put through fucking hell. She’s abandoned, treated like shit. And she never strays from what she loves.” Give her a guitar, I suggest, and it could be the story of his band. “I relate to it,” Flea confesses. I didn’t always keep my dignity and stay true, be kind and stuff.” Still, he says, “It’s something to aspire to.”

2011-08-29T19:09:00.000-07:00

Celebrate Slake!

2011-08-18T15:50:00.000-07:00

Hello Skylight friends!

You've likely heard by now about Los Angeles's newest arrival on the lit journal scene, Slake. Well, we just got word that they're throwing a big party not too far from here in celebration of their third issue, and we thought you'd like to know about it! Here are the details:

7:30 p.m. on Friday, August 26.

Location:
Atwater Crossing
3229 Casitas Ave 90039.

Food from the Atwater Crossing Wood Fire Kitchen, Ludotruck, Let's be Frank, & Handsome Coffee Roasters.

Music from Old Californio and Ojo. Slake crew and contributors will all be there.

Online:

$5 for a ticket in if you buy it online at http://shop.slake.la

$25 for a ticket, a copy of Issue 3, & a Slake tote bag.

At the door:

$8 for a ticket

Enjoy the party!

bird poop palimpsest #11

2011-08-13T15:39:00.000-07:00

In case you didn't get to see these beauties before they got fingered.

Comic Con Diary Part 2

2011-08-04T10:14:00.000-07:00

For the three people who've read the previous entry and want a refresher you can go here.

Friday - Day 3

After a harried breakfast, we spent the morning at Balboa Park. Wife sacrificed her time (and sanity) to spend the rest of the afternoon with the kids while I went back to the Con.

1:50 - Dropped off by wife, and begin making my way back to the convention center.

1:56 - Back at the Con. While walking, I spy a full on Ghostbusters car. It drives away too quickly before I get a chance to take pictures.

2:08 - Hit in the face (metaphorically) by a wall of t-shirts. It looks like a fortress made of pop culture references.

2:12 - Found a booth that is selling a line of pop culture bathrobes. I repeat - BATH ROBES!
2:15 - It is now official, Firefly is the new Buffy. Have now seen at least two booths hawking specialized Firefly wares.

2:31 - Hating to say this but CC is full of useless junk. $8 for a Fantastic Four patch?! Really?!

2:32 - These action figures are pretty sweet though
2:49 - For some reason, two random Playboy playmates have set up a booth. The line surrounding them is filled with the kind of people who would line up to meet a Playboy model. The only thing they are selling are 8x10 glossies of themselves. I now feel the need to sanitize myself before moving on.

2:57- Yeesh. Speaking of sanitize. There's also a massage booth here. The massagers are all women dressed up in some sort of costume. Unfortunately, this makes them look less like massage therapists and more like women who are in the world's oldest trade.

3:09 - Receive tweet that the graphic artist Daniel Danger is at the Mondo booth and that he is signing his new Star Trek the Motion Picture poster. Make a mad dash to booth 433.

3:25 - Buy my new Daniel Danger print. It is amazing. Wondering how to explain purchase to wife.

3:33 - Buy Game of Thrones picture for wife. Hoping this will do the trick.

3:45 - Enter what appears to be book alley. All the major and minor publishers seem to have set up shop here. YA science-fiction appears to be the soup du jour.

3:46 - L. Ron Hubbard's books are here too. But just his sci-fi, not the other thing.

3:50 - Geeking out over a small poster signed by Gabriel Ba. His work can be found in the two volumes of the Umbrella Academy, along with many other numerous titles. I have him sign it to my son, and will later hang it up in his room.

4:04 - See booth solely dedicated to Back to the Future. It is only slightly awesome as they are charging money to take close up pictures. Some how manage to sneak one in there though.

4:12 - The company, Sideshow Collectibles has a huge booth, with tons of models to look at.

4:30 - Eyes starting to glaze over. Getting too much sensory overload. Now entering final phase of my mission. First up, DC Comics.

4:38 - The DC Comics booth is very very loud. They're really pushing the new Batman game. They also had a gigantic lego Batman.

4:40 - Just saw Lance Henricksen sitting in a booth, next to Eric Powell of The Goon fame, waiting for somebody to talk to him. It looks like Bishop could use a hug right now. Even cyborgs need love too.

4:53 - Currently at the Marvel booth, if you can call an open space as wide as a football field a booth. It is insane right now. I feel like I'm at an MTV Spring Break Special with all the hooting and hollerin' going on. They're pushing the new Avengers movie hard.

4:55 - There were other movies that were being pushed too including, ahem, Ghost Rider 2 (Really? Does the world need more Nic Cage movies?!) and Men in Black 3.

5:03 - Back to the Future is a really big deal here. Just saw my second booth featuring another Delorean car.

5:11 - AAAAAHH. Almost crushed to death near the new Conan display.

5:25 - Running out of time. Need to meet up with the family at 5:30. Still haven't seen half of the booths here. Oh well. Here are some other random pictures I took!

Day 4 - Saturday

Our last day in San Diego. No plans to visit Comic Con today. We're heading out to have a nice lunch and then vist Trickster, a super small, sort of DIY version of Comic Con, if Comic Con were held in somebody's kitchen.

12:37 - Enter Trickster which was held at the San Diego Wine and Culinary Center. It's really, really small, but filled with lots of neat things. I absolutely love the DIY nature of Trickster. It's intimate style is in stark contrast to the behemoth that is the Con. Unfortunately for me, it's a little too intimate. Trying to wield a small child, and a little baby in an unwieldy stroller in a tight environment is just too much for me. I'm hoping that it might grow into a bigger venue next year because as an indie guy, I'd really like to support them. And they had lots of neat stuff! You can find out more about Trickster here.

1:10 - Purchase a print image of Hall & Oates by Scott C. I was intrigued because the entire transaction was done through an I-Pad. The I-Pad served as inventory control, the cash register and the credit card machine. Not to sound like old man Jones in a Scooby Doo cartoon, "But back in my day we needed lots of paper and sliders and an actual register, not some new fangled counting machine." Sorry. Anyways, here's the print I got. It sits on my wall and makes me happy everytime I pass by it.

1:19 - Pass by South Park town, which is as loud and obnoxious as its name sounds. It really encapsulates the over-commercialization that Comic Con has become. I took some pictures but feel such shame that I can't put them up.

3:00 - And like that, we're gone. I won't bore you with the details about our trip back let me just say that some of our adventures including a fire on the freeway, Chinese food and baby poop. Hope you enjoyed reading these as much as I did writing them. Thanks!

Gabrielle Bell prints

2011-08-03T15:17:00.000-07:00

Hello Skylight Books fans. For our fourth installment of our fabulous Fine Prints program we are pleased to present the fabulous Gabrielle Bell. Her work has been featured in the 2007 and 2009 Best American Comics Anthology, as well as the Yale Anthology of Graphic Fiction. Her work has also appeared in the Kramer's Ergot, Mome and the Drawn and Quarterly Showcase. Her semi-autobiographical work will take you on a trip that is full of whimsy and wonder. Behold our latest print!The rules are the same as always: for every $40 purchase made either in-store or on-line customers are then eligible to receive a raffle ticket. At the end of the month, we will then be raffling off 9 of these one-of-a-kind original prints. Each print is signed and numbered by Gabrielle herself. You can check our more of her work at her fabulous blog: http://gabriellebell.com.

Coyotes Book Club: Fun Pix!

2011-07-31T13:16:00.000-07:00

Members of the Coyotes Book Club (open to all, meets the 4th Tuesday at 8pm) humor Emily and pose for Corpus Libris photos with our most recent selection by Flannery O'Connor.

The next selection for The Coyotes Book Club is STONER by John Williams. All are welcome to attend -- email emily@skylightbooks.com if you'd like to be added to the Coyotes mailing list.

Comic Con Diary Part 1

2011-07-27T23:15:00.000-07:00

Hello there! As some of you may know, every summer an intimate gathering is held in downtown San Diego where like minded fans of comics, sci-fi, television, movies and art get together and revel in one another's company. My family and I decided to visit this, "Comic Convention," to seewhat all the hubbub was about. Here is my diary that I kept through our four day adventure. Hope you like it!

Day One Wednesday

7 am - noon - Frantically trying to make last minute preparations as we try to leave our house while making sure that we've brought every single baby/toddler item that we think we'll need during our trip.

Noon - Finally on the freeway! San Diego here we come!

12:19 - Cursing traffic on freeway. Have driven a total of four miles.

12:30 - Kids have both fallen asleep. Wife and I are gleefully making small talk. Decide to take slilght detour to avoid more traffic.

2:00 - Stop for gas, kids wake up. Begining to resent the drive.

2:18 - Beginning to resent the kids.

3:00 - Almost there. Baby begins to cry.

3:34 - For God's sake, where is the hotel?! Baby is still crying!

3:40 - Finally arrive at hotel. All nerds welcomed!

4:00 - Walk into room. The disappointment on wife's face is palpable. We become fearful that room was previously scene of strange sordid crime.

4:30 - Take toddler to swim in over-chlorinated pool. He is happy to swim, but mystified over strange smells eminating from the water.

6:30 - Attempt to pick up Comic Con badge from the off site location. Traffic is snarled everywhere. When I arrive there appear to be 1000 people waiting. Wife refuses to wait in car with two kids while I get in line. Decide to go to dinner instead.

8:20 - After a somewhat relaxing dinner, we rush to the convention center where I pick up my badge, along with the ginormous bag that they give you. Seriously, my son fits in the bag. In fact I made him sleep in it.

12:30 - Ready for bed, but only after reading the telephone sized Comic Con guide book which lists every panel that will be held. Already feeling intimdated.

Day Two - Thursday

9:00 - Wife and I decide that they best way to tackle the day is to split up. In the morning I'll take the toddler to the Con via public bus and she will have the car and the baby. We will later reconvene.

10:30 - Leave for shuttle, which arrives shortly thereafter.

10:34 - Realize that I have our car keys while wife is still back in room.

10:35 - Panic!

11:00 - Arrive at Comic Con.

11:01 - Greeted by 30 ft. Smurf.

11:03 - Also see shark movie promos including a mechanical bull shark that people can ride.

11:04 - First sightings of scantily clad booth babes. So far we've seen 2 sexy school girl outfits, 3 scientist babes, 2 sexy aliens and 2 models wearing skin tight Captain America t-shirts.

11:25 - Finally make it to the convention center. First booth we visit is Viz Comics. It's a huge booth, and we are all transfixed with a video game that is being played on a large flat screen TV. It's like watching a movie, the graphics are so intense.

11:38 - Visit Diamond distribution booth. Son is dwarfed by gigantic Lego Spiderman.

11:56 - Visit a special effects booth which features a life sized Christopher Reeves Superman statue.

12:05 - Visit the Mondo movie booth. Debated over buying the Eric Tan Captain America prints. Eventually decided against it. Later learned that they were being resold for $400 on Ebay. A 500% markup. Doh!

12:08 - Saw a print worth 25 g's. It was of Oswald the rabbit, precursor to Mickey Mouse.

12:10 - Minor catastrophe averted over Angry Birds board game.

12:15 - Checked out freebie table. What drek! Seriously, the only things more useless are tickets to a screening of NBC's The Cape.

1:00 - Toddler meltdown begins. Start long walk back to shuttle bus.

2:10 - Finally arrive at stop. Toddler fell asleep on the way back, forcing me to carry his lifeless body like he's the Bride of Frankenstein.

2:30 - Back at hotel. After lunch ask toddler if he's ready to go back to Comic Con. His response, "I'm done."

2:33 - Realize day is done. Rescheduling time for Friday.

bird poop palimpsest #10

2011-06-26T13:29:00.000-07:00

in case you didn't get to see these beauties before they got fingered

Fine Prints

2011-06-08T12:37:00.000-07:00

Over the course of the last 10 months or so, we've been lucky enough to have a number of different artists contribute images to us that we've then tuned into fine art prints, which we gave away to our customers.

We kicked it off with Adrian Tomine.

And then followed it up with a Dan Clowes print.

And now we are happy to present our latest edition by the internationally famous artist Seth.

The Seth print is 11x17, printed on fine archival paper, with only a miniscule print run of 10 made. They are each signed and numbered by Seth and are not for sale. We will be raffling them off, and you are eligible to receive a raffle ticket for each $40 purchase that you make.

Can't make it to the store? Shop online and request your raffle ticket in the comments field. You can also enter via our Facebook page. And also keep a lookout for future prints. We've got some exciting artists lined up and let us know if you'd like to be considered for a future print project. Drop me a line at kevin@skylightbooks.com. Good luck and support Skylight Books

Birth of an Empire

2011-06-06T13:03:00.000-07:00

I'm not a shiller. We here at Skylight don't do shillin', spread buzz, do mouthpieces or are plants. We pretty much only endorse stuff that we believe in, and/or like. This affords us a great deal of latitude in helping to promote artists and writer that may not necessarily have an outlet or venue to show their works to the general public. Some examples include Sad Animals by Adam Meuse (over 1,200 copies sold), My Life in Heavy Metal by Steve Almond (over 550 sold), Controlled Burn by Scott Wolven (over 230 sold) and on, and on the list goes. We have dozens of examples of stuff like this: a book, or zine that would never see the light of day at a bigger, corporate bookstore but sells extraordinarily well here at Skylight.

One of the greatest examples of this is Found magazine. Created by Davy Rothbart in 2001, what began as a magazine about stuff found on the ground has grown into an entire publishing empire. Seriously! 10 years ago I received a cold call from Davy asking if we would be interested in carrying his magazine. I said yes and a friendship was born. (It also helped that his magazine sold phenomenally well)

One decade later Davy has now published 7 issues of Found magazine, 3 issues of Dirty Found, 3 Found books, 1 book of short stories, 1 book of Found polaroids, and 1 book of found photographs. Not only that but Davy has now gone on to have an equally successful writing career having been published in GQ, the Believer and Slam magazine. He's also been a featured guest on the popular radio program, This American Life. And there was a fictionalized version of life made into a movie. I'm not saying that Skylight was a direct reason for all of this but it is pretty neat to have gotten in on the groundfloor.

Davy has more films coming out in the future including one that is a documentary about his love life called My Heart is an Idiot. It's premiering this Thursday at the Bootleg Theater, 2220 Beverly Blvd, in Echo Park. Doors open at 8, show starts soon thereafter. Get your tickets today! Davy is a super cool guy and I promise that he will buy you a drink if you go up to him and say, "Kevin from Skylight said you'd buy me a drink if I showed up."*

*guarantee of drink is not guaranteed.

bird poop palimpsest # 10

2011-05-22T17:17:00.000-07:00

"On Fairy Magic" by Catherynne M. Valente

2011-05-04T17:37:00.000-07:00

Hello readers! We've got a treat for you today. Intrepid author Catherynne M. Valente (who will be reading at the store on Wednesday, May 11 at 7:30 p.m.) has written a multi-part short story that's being shared among bookstores and libraries that she'll be visiting. If you're new to the story, start with the Intro here, and if you just need a refresher on the last bits, check out Part 3 on the Book Passage site.

Without further ado:

Nine Lessons from a Wyverary Governouresse
4. On Fairy Magic In Fairyland, magic is easy to come by. Magic is not quite so plentiful as water, but not so scarce as diamonds, either. Perhaps we should say it is like cheese—you might have to go quite a bit down to road to get the best stuff, but just about every corner grocer has a whole shelf full of workaday cheddar and spells. Thus it is important to learn the value of magic early on. Not because it harms one to do magic! That would be a poor sort of magic indeed. But because magic, in addition to being like cheese, is like a handsome youth or maiden that every soul fancies. Magic prefers it when you have had to take that long walk down the road, when you have done hard work and suffered a little for its sake. Magic may perform under any circumstances—a plain loaf changed to cake here, a dragon vanquished there, a pair of shoddy old loafers turned to seven-league boots or a portal opened to a fabulous other world. But if you have done it with difficulty, if you have wanted it so badly it hurt you deep in your bones, if you have paid a price in sweat or at least in missed appointments, the cake will have three tiers and sparkling golden icing with edible ruby roses ringing the crown, the dragon will shrink to the size of a green and scaly horse and let you ride upon it and call it Wilfred, the boots will have silver spurs and lace up with wide velvet ribbons which can be used to bind your enemies, and the fabulous other world will be in very serious trouble that only you can fix.

Bears need a great deal of help with this lesson, being time travelers. They are accustomed to simply jumping to a point where whatever they wish to do is already done, and I call that laziness. I should mention that what Bears mean by time travel is hibernating until the desired day, month, and year are reached. It is a slow method, but quite effective. You might not be impressed, since you know very well, for example, how to sleep until Christmas arrives. But Bears also know how to sleep backwards, and arrive before Christmas was invented. Not quite so sure of ourselves now, are we?

I do not allow any of my charges to have their supper until they have worked their auras to the bone making the feast appear—otherwise our meals would be terribly boring. Meat and potatoes and a little fish if someone stubbed their toe while reciting the incantation. I much prefer my ruby roses.

Read on! Part 5 is here on the Encino-Tarzana Library site.

Catherynn M. Valente is the author of the middle readers novel The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making, among many other books.

bird poop palimpsest #9

2011-04-23T17:32:00.001-07:00

In case you didn't get to see these beauties before they got fingered.

Guest blogger: JIM KRUSOE!!

2011-03-29T17:15:00.000-07:00

We're honored to have author Jim Krusoe contribute an entry to our store blog. Read on for a poignant, true-life backstory of the city he created for his novels Iceland, Girl Factory, Erased, and his latest, Toward You. Once you do that, you'll definitely want to check out his new book here, and come see his event at the store on Tuesday, April 5, at 7:30 p.m.!

Farewell to St. Nils
By Jim Krusoe

I invented the town of St. Nils so I could write a novel. As a former poet, my sense of reality was so shaky (and still is) I couldn’t imagine writing about any real, accountable city. I needed a city that would be mine alone, one that would hold still as I filled it with my dubious content, and the only way to find a city like that was to make one up. St Nils was named with a tip of the hat to nihilism, naturally, but it started with more or less the same components as the Ocean Park section of Santa Monica, where I had wandered lost and confused for many a day in my youth and middle age. So St. Nils became the setting of my first novel, Iceland. Then, with the next two books, Girl Factory and Erased, it morphed, grew, and gained population until now, with this new book, Toward You, I bid it (I’m pretty sure) adios.

In its day St. Nils had orchards, an ocean, a cemetery, a university (The University of Art), a community college, an institute for Mind/Body Research, a pool for keeping organs alive, and an animal shelter, as well as the usual yogurt stores, pet shops, sex shops, nail parlors, and hardware stores—in other words, everything a person needed to live. The male population of St. Nils consisted mainly of grumpy old guys or well-meaning and deranged younger ones that I liked to picture careening around its streets and alleys like pinballs of misdirected good intention. St. Nils’ women were mostly objects of desire, and tended to be responsible.

After Iceland, St. Nils became the test tube where I could try and re-try the question of communication between the living and the dead, and now, with Toward You, I seem to have reached the end of that particular experiment. I don’t claim that my results are especially original but, for whatever reason, they took me three complete novels to arrive at, and they can be replicated. In fact, they already have.

The sad coincidence that accompanies the demise of this fictional locale is that the person in real life who inspired the protagonist of Iceland, has died as well. My character, Paul, was partly based on an old, certifiably crazy friend of mine named Bob Greenfield. He was best known for his poetry of unsettling intensity and also for glomming onto women, in the process, making their lives a nightmare. Bob once got an NEA fellowship for his poems. For his glomming he received several years of restraining orders, the county jail, and mental institutions. Bob represented to me just how thin the line between psychosis and steadfastness actually was. He was rumored to have been the inspiration for a Morgan Fairchild film, The Seduction, and most certainly was the subject of a later Bud Cort film, Ted and Venus, in which Cort played Bob. More to the point, with his fixation and the wake of destruction he left behind, Bob was our Don Quixote, minus a Sancho Panza.

Three weeks ago, Bob died alone in a rented room in the Ocean Park section of Santa Monica, and with him St. Nils has vanished, too.

bird poop palimpsest #8

2011-03-20T15:56:00.000-07:00

Radioactive

2011-03-18T11:11:00.000-07:00

Just finished RADIOACTIVE: Marie & Pierre Curie: A Tale of Love and Fallout by Lauren Redniss.

Holy crap this book is beautiful, in that painful-beauty sort of way, both visually and in content.

First, visually.

I don't really know how to explain it, but the images in this book, and more specifically the colors, speak to me at a visceral level. Like a Rothko painting, there is some inexplicable emotional punch that comes from the color itself on each page, its depth and complexity and flow. It makes my chest feel tight, like good cello music or the feeling right before wrenching sobs take over. Most of the illustrations were created using a process called "cyanotype," where the paper is treated with a chemical and then exposed to light. "The idea of doing some kind of primitive chemistry had a lot of resonance with the story...But I chose it mostly because the color that radium glows is blue," Redniss claimed in this Wall Street Journal article. So the art is the result of a fascinating type of integrity to the story that I really appreciate, especially in nonfiction.

Now, for content. It is so terrifyingly apropos right now.

Like Rebecca Skloot's The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, RADIOACTIVE is one of those fabulous hybrids that forces its reader to grapple with the amazing and horrible implications of scientific discovery. Redniss has you rooting for Marie Curie, rah rah, a female scientist accomplishing amazing things, but she also demonstrates the conflict that the Curies felt as they gained knowledge of the potential danger of their discoveries, both for themselves and for the future of humanity. Throughout the narrative, she weaves stories about the future effects of radiation -- Hiroshima, Three Mile Island, Chernobyl -- and of course the horrors that are still unfolding in Japan as I write.

Do yourself a favor. Read this book, and then turn off the light and watch it glow in the dark.

*Posted simultaneously at ProlixCorpusLibris.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

2011-03-17T14:13:00.000-07:00

We wish you a happy St. Patrick's Day. May it be filled with books. (and booze.) and friends. And Skylight. Come down and see us.

To get you in the mood, here's a song called "James Joyce." About James Joyce and El Paso, Texas by Fragile Gang.

James Joyce by fragilegang

The Return of Staff Juice

2011-02-23T14:55:00.000-08:00

As some of you may know, the staff here at Skylight Books are one big family, and as such we have a family band, like the Carters. Well, perhaps more like the Shaggs, but you see where I'm going with this...

Follow me once more into the breach, won't you?

I am pleased to present to you the first Staff Juice single, Touch My Brain:
Touch My Brain (ft. Noel Alumit) by Staff Juice

Here are some older songs you may have heard played live in the store.

Everybody Has An Inner Axel Part 2 (Live) by Staff Juice

Child Predator Hands (Live) by Staff Juice

Slice (Live) by Staff Juice

--the Juice

Ain't No Joy

2011-02-16T22:45:00.000-08:00

Some of you may have heard (and if you haven't, it is with a heavy heart that I must tell you) that Borders, the second largest chain retailer in the country, is filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and announced today that they are closing close to 200 stores around the country.

But despite what you might think, there ain't no joy in this house about that announcement. We are indie to the bone, for sure, but many of our employees started off working in the chains. Several phenom booksellers from other indies (Bookavore! jennIRL! I'm looking at you!) have shared their very heartfelt and personal connections to Borders. My first memories of begging to go to bookstores were related to the Borders in West Des Moines, Iowa. I remember scouring the place for Piers Anthony books when I was in middle school. My friend Audrey and I would go there in high school and make fun of those horribly cheesy poetry books with pink or yellow covers and titles like I'm So Glad That You're My Sister. They were really more like extended, bound greeting cards. How's that for a crazy Friday night? Rebels, we two. Finally, I remember going there to have Garrison Keillor sign a book for my dad. I didn't know that he was doing a live broadcast, so I walked in to the packed store, and was stopped in my tracks by The Voice. The Voice that was an utterly consistent presence throughout my childhood. And as I scanned around the crowd, I suddenly saw a Face that was mouthing the same words The Voice was saying. The Voice had a Face! Oh man, it was so trippy. I actually had to leave because I couldn't handle it. But that was my Borders.

Gayle Shanks, former president of the American Booksellers Association, suggested that perhaps the biggest loss will be the diversity of marketplace that is crucial not only for the vitality of the book business, but for our struggling economy as well. Ask an independent bookseller who their biggest competitor is, and rarely will you hear them say another independent bookstore. Fifteen years ago, he or she would have probably answered Borders or Barnes & Noble. But recently, things seem to have shifted again, and many booksellers will say that our struggles as physical independent bookstores are not so terribly different from the struggles of physical chain bookstores, and we're all really competing against massive online retailers who have more warehouses and widgets than bookshelves or bodies.

I'm glad that the chains exist. Our store is fairly small, and by necessity we must be selective about what we carry. Someone asks for a specific test prep guide, and we only have the space to carry 1 or 2. But I know that the chains usually stock many of them, and I know that kids always need them at the last minute. So go to Borders! I understand! I'm happy to order it for you, but if you need it today, then by all means, give it a shot.

They're closing a lot of Borders stores in Southern California. Not all of them, but quite a few. Of course I hope that some of the stranded customers will gravitate towards Skylight Books for their book needs. But there ain't no joy in a bookstore closing. Ever.

I love Wolfgang's Vault!

2011-02-04T18:53:00.000-08:00

I can not stop listening to the great music I am finding on the Wolfgang's Vault website. This beautiful song was recorded right here in Los Angeles at the Ash Grove. At the Festival of Books we have been honored to host the Ash Grove and its founder Ed Pearl as they continue to fight social injustice and promote the power of music.

Listen to more Mississippi John Hurt at Wolfgang's Vault.

bird poop palimpsest #7

2011-01-30T14:39:00.001-08:00

in case you didn't get to see these beauties before they got fingered

West of Here (and north, too)

2011-01-28T14:52:00.000-08:00

Here's a metaphor I'm going to stretch too far:

Imagine a college dorm. All those kids packed in shoulder-to-shoulder, hanging out on the ratty couch in the "study" lounge, greeting each other as they shuffle in flip flops and bathrobes down the hall to the giant institutional bathroom. OK, are you picturing it? Now: Think about those couple of kids living there who all other kids are excited about. The ones who seem cool right from the get-go, who everyone knows and talks about and wants to be friends with. They're charismatic, attractive, interesting. They've seen more than the others have seen and done more than the others have done. OK, now imagine that instead of college students, all those bathrobe wearing, shuffling masses are books (stay with me on this). And there's tens of thousands of them, most of which will, unfortunately, pass through those hallways (or in our case, bookstore shelves) largely unnoticed. Then there are the few that everyone gets excited about. The ones that, though they're just freshmen like everyone else, find themselves superstars. These are the buzz books. West of Here by Jonathan Evison is one of these books.

Books get pre-publication buzz lots of ways -- some, like new titles by major authors, are obviously buzz-worthy, and a few get talked about because the author is a famous person's spouse or nephew and he or she isn't afraid to shout that from the rooftops. Some books start out small then grow popular by word of mouth (among the college kids, these are the ones who sat alone the first few meals but turned out to be brilliant and funny, if shy). Then there are those -- West of Here is among them -- who arrive on the scene and impress everyone at first glance just by being awesome. They're epic, unusual, literary. They say to you, "I'm going to be big. Take notice." (In our metaphor, these are the kids who spent the previous summer traveling down the coast of South America by boat or working for an NGO in Africa or touring Germany by bicycle.)

And this is where I get to talk about the novel itself. Forgive me if I get effusive, but I'm really excited about it. It's set not exactly west of our particular "here," but north, in the fictional town of Port Bonita, Washington. Evison tells the stories of the settlers who carved the town out of the wilderness, at significant cost to the wilderness itself and the area's original inhabitants, and the modern-day reverberations of those 100-year-old actions. It's a Western story through and through; Evison captures the formidableness of both the landscape and the pioneers who were dedicated to taming it, and the sprawl and industry that have replaced woods and rivers in so many stretches of western coastline. It's beautifully written, funny, thrilling, sad, and strange. And here's some more good news: This novel is as much for fans of David Mitchell's cast-of-thousands epics and Tom Perrotta and Arthur Phillips's brainy tales of modern ennui as it is for fans of Western writers like Larry McMurtry. Which is to say, it's an excellent literary novel that also has specific appeal to people in our section of the country. It's going to be a hit.

First printings are already getting scarce in some stores, but because we're hosting an event with the author, we've still got them by the carton. Meet Jonathan Evison here on Thursday, February 24, at 7:30 p.m., and get a copy signed. Or give us a call (323-660-1175) and order one over the phone; we'll get it signed for you. But whatever you do, don't miss this book. Don't!

Legends of Bookselling

2011-01-27T20:06:00.000-08:00

Here are some old pictures from the archives...all these people still work here!
64 years: The total combined time that these five have worked at Skylight Books!

bird poop palimpsest #6

2011-01-19T15:13:00.000-08:00

in case you didn't get to see these beauties before they got fingered

Clay and Books and 2011

2011-01-12T21:00:00.000-08:00

This is a cup I made in my ceramics class this last fall. First time I have ever taken a ceramics class and the first 'class' of any type I have taken in 10 years. It was such a great experience. Working with clay was life changing. I was drawn to it at a New Year's Eve party December 31, 2009. An artist there was discussing working with clay and some sort of transformation happened in my brain chemistry and I was drawn in like a bug to light. I promised myself I would explore my new mystery obsession. When I moved to the foothills I found an art center that had a clay class and I learned pinch pots, slab work, and throwing on the wheel. I felt serene, accomplished. Learning clay is interesting because every little element, from the weather to how short your fingernails are, has an effect on the project. Then the random dance of the fire and the melting of the glazes adds a whole other unexpected beauty or heartbreak. I found the process to be meditative, almost hypnotic. I walked down to my local (small) library and checked out their four books on ceramics/pottery. They were old and beat up and published in the sixties and seventies...the exact kind I wanted to learn from. The cup I made above was inspired by one in the book. Ceramicists talk about form and line and movement and that is stuff I am still learning. But I am proud of my cup (and the little sake cups I made as well). Working on the wheel was exciting and scary and, of course, sexy (but not because I have seen THE MOVIE, but because when your slippery hands make those cones and bowls it is like an extension of yourself). The class ended but I am continuing to work - a new piece...tall - maybe a sake bottle or maybe a vase. Or just a sculpture. It's all learning and this experimenting and mistake making has become one of my favorite ways to be taught. Here's to more playing in clay in 2011.

A Baker's Dozen of Emily's Favorites from 2010

2010-12-05T20:42:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite things about this season is remembering all the great books that came out over the course of the year. Below, you'll find 12 new books and one classic you may have forgotten about. Wade through the drivel, and look at what gems you'll find!

What is All This? Uncollected Stories by Stephen Dixon
I have a crush on this book: the cover, the paper, the heavy ink. Touch it. Read two stories. Try not to bring it home with you. Fail.

My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me edited by Kate Bernheimer
Best title of the year award - and apparently it encourages cannibalism! Familiar writers riffing on familiar stories and creating something completely new in the process. Look at the table of contents - I guarantee some of your favorite contemporary writers are there. Perfect for reading on the plane.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
Skloot deftly weaves 3 compelling story lines -- the life of Henrietta Lacks, a poor black woman in Baltimore who died of cervical cancer in the 1950s, the life of the cells that were taken without her knowledge and became the most ubiquitous cells in medical research, and the lives of her children. It is a story of race, class, medicine, exploitation, generosity, and growth. The scene in the lab with Zakariyya, Deborah, and Rebecca is stunning, breathtaking, heartbreaking, redemptive, and as Deborah suggested, miraculous. It is narrative nonfiction at its finest.

Nox by Anne Carson
This book, unlike many you'll encounter, forces you (by its form and by its content) to inhabit its world. From the first page, there will be parts you don't understand. But you must trust Carson to lead you, for she is a guide like none you've ever met. All you have to know is that she had a brother. He disappeared, then reappeared, then was gone forever. Let the rest of this book wash over you.

Room by Emma Donoghue
The less you know about this book when you start reading it, the better. It's best to learn and become aware as 5-year-old Jack does. He's a narrator who will captivate you like Christopher John Francis Boone did in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time. Room will bring tears of joy, sadness, and anger, it will quicken your pulse with fear, and it will make you laugh out loud.

Detroit Disassembled by Andrew Moore
This is hands down the best photography book I've encountered this year. The images are at once stunning and horrifying, and they force you to think about society and waste and capitalism and rebirth and beauty. I am reminded of Polidori's After the Flood and the contrasts between New Orleans and Detroit. Both are stories of decay and neglect, but where Polidori's documents the results of a singular violent act from Mother Nature, Moore's captures the haunting, slow decline of decades.

Bluets by Maggie Nelson
This narrative ripples like water. It reminds me of Anne Carson. Blue as color. Blue as philosophy. Blue as depression and as Eros. It is raw, this book. And thoughtful. And lyrical. The last two pages are phenomenal, but you can't just skip to them - they are a culmination.

Everything Matters! by Ron Currie Jr.
A great novel, probably unlike anything else you've read. Imagine learning, on the day you're born, when and how the world will end (in your lifetime). What would you do with that information? Good for fans of David Foster Wallace and Don DeLillo.

Mirrors: Stories of Almost Everyone by Eduardo Galeano
This stunning world history is nearly inexplicable. It is not linear in the slightest. Nor is it objective. Rather, it starts at a point and radiates outward in all directions. Reading these small, lyrical vignettes is like watching life form, cell by cell, civilization by civilization, with sparks of wonder melding with flashes of horror. If you've never read Galeano, please, I beg you, start now.

The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddhartha Mukherjee
Incredibly well written and more inspiring than you'd expect, Mukherjee illuminates our changing perceptions of the disease and the truly astounding advances that have been made in its identification and treatment.

Penguin 75 by Paul Buckley
Card-carrying cover geek. Right here, not ashamed. This book reproduces more than 75 of Penguin's celebrated covers and shares reflections (positive and negative) from authors, artists, and designers.

The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet by David Mitchell
David Mitchell doing what he does best -- weaving stories, inhabiting voices, melding genres, creating worlds, containing multitudes...

The Glass Bead Game by Herman Hesse
I picked up this book because David Mitchell mentioned it while I was interviewing him, and turns out it's a pretty good lens through which to view David's own work. It's almost as though it articulates a project that Hesse began and Mitchell continues. Hesse imagines a world where cultural values essentially died and then were reborn (far in the future) as the Glass Bead Game, an "act of mental synthesis through which the spiritual values of all ages are perceived as simultaneously present and vitally alive." The story follows the rise and fall of Joseph Knecht, the Magister Ludi, a particularly influential Master of the Game. Really good as a follow up to Cloud Atlas.

bird poop palimpsest #5

2010-11-29T14:53:00.001-08:00

in case you didn't get to see these beauties before they got fingered

Last Friday

2010-11-19T13:47:00.000-08:00

Happy Friday-Before-Thanksgiving-When-All-The-Christmas-Shopping-Madness-Begins! Now is your last chance to take a deep breath and chillax. Don't think about your travel plans yet, when you have to fly back home and sit down to an uncomfortably silent Thanksgiving dinner, thanks to Uncle Frank who imposed the, "no politics, no religion, and no scotch rule," after last year's Thanksgiving turned into an impromptu intervention with Aunt Patty.

And let's not forget all the joys of traveling. Don't dwell on the fact that full body scans and uncomfortable patdowns are now standard operating procedures. And how can we ever forget just how much the airline industry loves us? More baggage fees? Sounds great! No free meals? Okey-dokey. Over booked the flight again? Wonderful! Can we sit on the runway for six hours and not leave? YES! WE! CAN!

So you should take some time to enjoy these last few pre-Thanksgiving days and curl up with a good book or two. Here are a couple that I'm reading and loving right now.

The War for Late Night: When Leno Went Early and Television Went Crazy by Bill Carter.
A totally interesting account of just what happened during the late night wars in 2008. Full of interesting little tidbits such as: Letterman drinking copious amounts of coffee and eating tons of chocolate before each show, and how Leno would casually negotiate his million dollar contracts on the back of paper napkins.

Decoded by Jay-Z
This book isn't going to be for everybody, because let's face it not everybody likes hip-hop, but I think that Shawn Carter (aka Jay-Z), is a really fascinating person. This is a guy who came from one of the roughest housing projects in Brooklyn and made it to the top of the entertainment world. Jay interweaves his life story with background information about many of his lyrics. It will also look very classy on your coffee table with it's Andy Warhol cover and all.

Parker: The Outfit by Richard Stark and Darwyn Cooke
A beautifully illustrated graphic novel. Dawrwyn Cooke will teleport you back to a time where Sinatra ruled the airwaves, Cadillacs were the car of choice and a group of criminals called the Outfit controlled every vice in America. In steps Parker, a thief who follows his own rules and will stop at nothing to take down the Outfit. An amazing book from an amazing artist.

Mad Men Unbuttoned: A Romp Through 1960's America by Natasha Vargas-Cooper and
Mad Men The Illustrated World by Dyna Moe
I love Mad Men the way a fat kid loves ice cream, but just because a show is good doesn't mean that the books written about it are (has anybody read a Sopranos book lately?). However, these two Mad Men books are excellent. Mad Men Unbuttoned is more of a sociological examination of what kind of world Don Draper and company would live in (um, repressed anyone?) while Mad Men the Illustrated World is more of a fun and whimsical look at those who reside in the Sterling-Cooper-Draper-Price universe and it has great illustrations to boot.

Please take time to enjoy the calm before the storm and if you are in town next Friday (Nov.26) come by our Arts Annex where we will be celebrating Black Friday by throwing you a party, there will be clowns, strippers, firemen, fireworks, fire dogs, fire hoses and other assorted fire things. But no fire sale, nor any of the other things I just wrote. But we really will have a party!

bird poop palimpsest #4

2010-11-08T15:14:00.001-08:00

In case you didn't get to see these beauties before they got fingered.

Adrian Tomine & You = Success!

2010-11-01T15:25:00.000-07:00

Well, it's all done now. Over 450 of you wonderful people entered our Fine Prints giveaway and 10 lucky winners got to take home one of these signed and numbered giclees. We hope that you had as much fun as we did.

Facts about our Fine Prints Giveaway (that I just made up)

10% of those who were eligible to enter declined.
95% of you that entered were very excited.
5% of you that were not excited turned out to be zombies.
18% of you choose breakfast as your favorite meal of the day.
65% recognized the image from the New Yorker
87.5% think this picture is both awesome and sad.
1% were unsure where they were shopping but entered the raffle anyways.

We would like to give a special hearty shout-out to Adrian Tomine who not only generously gave us this beautiful picture, but was also equally generous with his time and in general was an uber-cool person to work with. His books and art are awesome and we recommend that all people throughout the world read him posthaste! Please check out more of his work at http://www.adrian-tomine.com/

bird poop palimpsest #3

2010-11-01T15:04:00.000-07:00

In case you didn't get to see these beauties before they got fingered.

Enhanced eBooks: Do we want them? Do we care?

2010-10-19T12:38:00.000-07:00

I read a thought provoking piece this morning about enhanced ebooks. I've had more conversations about ebooks with book industry colleagues than with customers, that's for sure.

What is an ebook? Right now, it is pretty much a digital copy of the content that would be printed in a book, which you can download to your computer or upload to your preferred device.

What is an enhanced ebook? The idea is that customers will appreciate (and be willing to pay more for) extra content surrounding the book -- embedded video and audio, interviews with the author, reading guides, interactive games, etc. Kassia Krozser from Booksquare has a pretty good write-up with lots of good comments if you want more info.

But what really got me thinking this morning came from Richard Nash, formerly the head of Soft Skull and Counterpoint, and now working on the new project Cursr. He is someone who many of us in the book biz deeply admire, and who is always willing to challenge the status quo. He wrote that "The reality is that the lack of audio and video in book is a feature, not a bug," and that there are many people who would rather NOT have all that stuff, even if they do choose to read digitally. He then asks: "What problem does the enhanced eBook solve? Not a consumer problem, it’s designed to solve a publishers’ business model problem." Just go and read the whole article.

And of course, amid this changing landscape, we are constantly wondering what role the independent, bricks-and-mortar store has to play. We can sell ebooks through our website. We do want to be able to provide our customers with digital content if they want it. But most indie bookstores aren't making extra dough in this economic climate, and this is all very much still in a development stage. The way I see it, I can't really be much more than a well-informed observer at this point.

What do you think? Do you care about enhanced ebooks? Do you care about digital reading? Is this something that people in the book business think is a bigger deal than consumers do? How the hell are things going to look in 10 years? I have no idea.

bird poop palimpsest #2

2010-10-15T11:30:00.000-07:00

In case you didn't get to see these beauties before they got fingered.

Perhaps it hits a little too close to home.

2010-10-13T11:07:00.000-07:00

From the preface: "All descriptions of hipsters are doomed to disappoint, because they will not be the hipsters you know. Yet someday when hipsters no longer walk the earth, and subcultures have changed, and new aesthetics have evolved, with new terms of disapprobation and praise, the hipster of the period 1999-2010 will remain of historic interest - and investigators at a later date will be at the mercy of whether or not we chose to record our impressions today ... Those of you who have encountered hipsters in real life, [or in your bathroom mirror. - Ed.] ... may surely complain of the characterizations in this book. But to those of you who are reading this in 2050, I can only say: Everything in this book is true, and its impressions are perfect."

And with that, the good people at n+1 bring you a conversation every bit as complex, post-modern, ironic and humorous as the subculture it explores.

What Was The Hipster? the book, follows from What Was the Hipster? the symposium, held at the New School in New York in 2009 (and recently revisited at UCLA).

As is pointed out further along in the preface to the book, the very idea of an academic discussion of hipsters has been greeted with smug faces screwed up in wry (that is to say, not unhipsterlike) grins as they deem the topic "too stupid and demeaning" to broach, as well as being "very, very sad."

And yet no one has a problem devoting entire schools of critical and subcultural theory to exploring, with seriousness of intent; Punk, Goth, Hip-Hop, Teddy Boys, Nascar dads, Soccer Moms, and/or Teabaggers. I've even heard a few flat out denials of the existence of hipsters as a singular subculture, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

Make no mistake, the hipster does (or did, depending) exist - some of them may even work here at Skylight. But I'll let you, dear readers, be the judge of that. Either way, there's no better place to start than with the first serious study of the subculture that conquered the aughts.

And it's just ten bucks! Now, please enjoy an oldie but a goodie:

bird poop palimpsest #1

2010-10-10T20:46:00.000-07:00

In case you didn't get to see these beauties before they got fingered.

Free Limited Edition Adrian Tomine prints

2010-10-09T08:38:00.000-07:00

People are suspicious when they hear the word “free.” They’re always looking for the fine print. Nobody believes that you can get something for nothing right? Well at Skylight Books you can get two somethings for the price of just one thing. Confused? Then sit down, take off your hat and listen to this offer.

During the entire month of October anytime anyone of you awesome people makes a purchase of $40 or more you are eligible to enter our Fine Print raffle. At the end of the month all of the raffle tickets will be put into our gigantic Skylight cauldron and we’ll be pulling out 10 tickets. Those 10 lucky people will then receive a FREE Adrian Tomine giclee print. This print was made exclusively for Skylight Books and was most recently featured on the cover of the New Yorker in June 2008. Each print is signed and numbered by Adrian Tomine and is printed on high quality archival paper using state of the art ink jet printers. Finally, each print comes with a certificate of authenticity so you can be assured that they are the real deal.

So far we’ve given away over 100 raffle tickets and we expect those numbers to grow each week, so come on down, support your local bookstore and possibly get an awesome print too!

Happy October!

2010-10-02T12:59:00.000-07:00

Well folks, it's that time of year again. A time of multitudinous opportunities to bask in all thing dark, spooky, and costume-y ; a time when being an incorrigible horror geek is not only accepted, but encouraged; and when children of all ages roam the night begging for candy while dressed as zombies, vampires, ghosts, and most horrifying of all - Lady GaGas!

Some of us at the store are going to be celebrating Halloween for the entire month of October, so don't be surprised to hear some spooky music now and again, and beware of the roving Scarecrow and the severed head of Tor Johnson!

Looking for some Halloween fun? Well, do I have a tip for you: the Haunted Hayride (now in its second year of operation) moves from Malibu to Griffith Park. I went last year, and it was by far the most fun I had all season, easily beating out Knott's and Universal Studios' respective Halloween events, and at a fraction of the price.

What's that you say? You want MORE Halloweeniness? Fear not, Skylighter Dan will be wearing a costume every shift he works during this month. Don't believe me? Feast your eyes upon the terrifying, and yet oddly adorable BEE-MAN!

Stop by all month to play "What Will Dan Be Today!?"

Keep checking back as we'll be posting pictures of all of Dan's costumes. Not to spoil anything, but I've heard whispers about a unicorn-human hybrid...

And now, we leave you with a segment from the greatest Canadian export of all time: the Hilarious House of Frightenstein! Grizelda, the floor is yours...

Reflections on 4 years under the Skylight.

2010-10-02T11:27:00.000-07:00

September has just been flying by -- working hard at the store, and a roller coaster of a month otherwise -- and then I look up and my 4 year anniversary at Skylight Books has gone and passed me by!

Let me share with you some of my favorite things about working at Skylight:

1. People people people! I have gotten to meet the most wonderful people while working at Skylight. My coworkers and bosses are awesome. There are customers who I see several times a week, so cyclical and regular and refreshing. There are neighborhood eccentrics who are part of the fabric of Los Feliz, love it or hate it. And I'd be lying if I didn't admit that I enjoy seeing actors and musicians and other celebrities sometimes. I love being part of their real lives, off screen and off stage. And I love meeting my favorite authors.

2. I also love my feline coworkers. And my canine regulars.

3. Oh, the Infinite Party.

4. David Mitchell. David Mitchell! A favorite of our staff and our customers.

5. Corpus Libris. I'm pretty fortunate to have co-workers who will humor me and pose for photos or take shots of me with books and parts of the body. I see new ones every day.

6. Dressing up as Orson Welles and playing the War of the Worlds radio broadcast over the speakers. This was one of my favorite Hot Summer Nights from 2009.

7. Not only was this a great event, but I had a blast creating this mash-up video of it.

8. We opened our new space, 1814, over 2 years ago. What a coup in this cultural and economic climate! For the grand opening party, we created a band called Staff Juice. The only rule: you couldn't play an instrument that you're trained on. Such cacophony, such fun!

9. Through Skylight, I've gotten to participate in the broader industry as a whole: I got quoted in the LA Times during the Festival of Books, I've gotten to attend BEA and the ABA's Winter Institute, I got to go to a red carpet movie premiere, I've gotten to meet awesome booksellers and publishers, and best of all, I get to talk all books, all the time, in real life and online.

10. I get to be a part of Skylight! What more could a girl want?

Step Into the Wayback Machine

2010-09-19T12:52:00.000-07:00

Remember the 90's, and our pre-internet lifestyle? Your cell phone only made phone calls, no texting, sexting, downloading or IMing. Facebook consisted of having your picture in the yearbook, while the only definition you got on your television came in the form of a Jeopardy question. And music was moving away from the hair metal bands of the 80's like Poison, Motley Crue and Guns N' Roses and were replaced by Nirvana, SoundGarden and Pearl Jam. But even beyond these headliners were a group of indie bands that were making a name for themselves - Built to Spill, Modest Mouse, Slater-Kinney, Pavement, Sebadoh, Yo La Tengo, Guided By Voices, the Spinanes and Mudhoney among others.

Obviously some of these bands have gone on to have long careers, while some others (sorry Afghan Whigs, where did you go Lemonheads, goodbye The Sundays) . . . well not so much.

Anyways, if you are feeling nostalgic you can always fire up the ol' Itunes and download some songs or you can step into the Wayback Machine and actually go to the Hollywood Bowl on September 30th and see not just No Age, not just Pavement, but the kings of rock themselves - friggin' Sonic Youth!

Bring a bottle or two of wine or whatever spirit catches your fancy, some Trader Joe's snacks and a nice warm jacket and relive your angst ridden years, when smoking in bars was still okay, gas prices seemed reasonable and Quentin Taratino ruled the world.

And if you wanna get your read on before the show you can check out these books - Goodbye 20th Century a biography of Sonic Youth, Slanted and Enchanted the Evolution of Indie Culture, and Sonic Youth Etc. - Sensational Fix.

Hope to see you there! But please, leave your leather jacket at home. I think we both know that it just doesn't fit anymore.

Nobody Bookforums the Biz... Until now!

2010-09-17T15:03:00.000-07:00

Pardon that cornball lead in, but this might be the sweetest thing I've seen in a while: Biz Markie on the cover of Bookforum. The image is taken from the forthcoming book True Hip Hop, by Mike Schreiber, out next month from Mark Batty Publisher. You can pre-order it from us right here.

Bookforum is always a great read, but with a cover story ("Rapper's Delight: the Poetic Possibilities of Hip-Hop") by Kevin Young, an examination of Lady GaGa, "In the Context of No Context" (sample sentence: "She dresses and moves like an alien whore from a Bob Fosse film.") by Heather Havrilesky and a review of Sara Marcus's Girls to the Front: The True Story of the Riot Grrrl Revolution, and Tao Lin's Richard Yates, two books we just happen to be having events for, this is a can't miss issue.

And did I mention Biz is on the cover?

No Mo Mo at the Sto.

2010-09-13T22:19:00.000-07:00

Monica Carter, a member of the Skylight staff has decided to move on and focus on her blossoming writing career. The Skylight Family will miss her and wish her the best of luck in the future. She will always be a part of the Family.

If you can't get enough Monica, check out her awesome Blog.

Rick Moody

2010-09-10T07:11:00.000-07:00

Rick Moody stopped by the store to talk up his new book last week. His new novel sounds promising!

These books are pulsing at me, they are breathing and buzzing...

2010-09-07T19:38:00.001-07:00

The books arrived today for Thursday's Two Dollar Radio Event. These books are pulsing at me, they are breathing and buzzing, the prose is that alive. The publisher lives by this slogan: "Two Dollar Radio: Books too loud to ignore." I can't ignore them. They keep staring at me.

I've just started Grace Krilanovich's The Orange Eats Creeps, and let me tell you, that prose gets under your SKIN. Slutty Teenage Hobo Vampire Junkies. Need I say more? If this book encountered Twilight in a dark alley, I have a strange feeling that one of them would be left bleeding and twitching and writhing and weeping in a corner, if it made it out alive. I'll give you one guess which one. Twilight certainly has its place in our culture, it's proven that (and it helps us pay our bills). But Krilanovich's The Orange Eats Creeps is what people should really be reading.

I read Joshua Mohr's first book, Some Things That Meant the World To Me, after receiving a copy at Book Expo America a few years ago. Here's what I said then (and still agree with):

"Wow, what a book! Mohr pulls off two equally intriguing story lines: How did a boy named Rhonda end up in a mental hospital talking to a psychiatrist fifteen years ago? And will he finally be able to move beyond his past in the here and now? The
boy Rhonda seems so full of innocence and resilience (and coping mechanisms), and the grown Rhonda brings some innocence and much chagrin but you find yourself rooting for him anyway. The sessions with the psychiatrist who he calls Angel-Hair resemble Faulknerian stream-of-consciousness, like Benjy in The Sound and the Fury. I'm not gonna lie and tell you this book isn't heartbreaking. But it's also beautiful and unforgettable."

I haven't read Termite Parade yet, but I can't wait.

Full disclosure, I just started working for Two Dollar Radio, so I'm totally biased. But their books are pretty awesome. This ain't the fiction of formulas or frippery. This shit is raw. This shit is pulsing with life. Come to our event Thursday, 7:30pm, I dare you to miss it...

Wow. We all need to go see this.

2010-09-03T10:02:00.001-07:00

I know, I know. What am I doing blogging about a concert when there's so much going on in the book business, from the new Franzen book coming out to the controversy surrounding the review coverage of the new Franzen book? Well, sometimes we all need a break from the Franzenness, and I'm going to do that by talking about a show that's going to be so awesome, I might fall over from excitement if I go.

OK, get ready: PAVEMENT, SONIC YOUTH, and NO AGE are playing TOGETHER! Our good friends at the Hollywood Bowl (remember that awesome display window they did in our main store? The one Franny systematically disassembled each night and slept in every day?) are presenting the show, and I think we all should go. Because we're all friends here in the Skylight community, and if you've shopped in our store and enjoyed the music we play, chances are you are super into this.

Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not organizing a bus trip, a sing-along, matching t-shirts, lanyard making, or any other kind of group activity. I just think you should click on the link, get your tickets, and show the Hollywood Bowl how awesome an audience infused with Skylighters can be. The show is Sept. 30 at the Bowl. See you there!

NEW: Boneshaker magazine

2010-08-25T16:33:00.000-07:00

Skylight Books is proud to announce that we now carry Boneshaker Magazine, a beautiful not-for-profit dedicated to "people and projects doing great things with bicycles". As some of you may know, the staff here at the store have long been dedicated to bike culture, even going so far as to call the city about getting more bike racks out in front of the store for our customers and our staff members alike.

Los Angeles has a large and vibrant bike culture, and our neighborhood has a number of great bike shops: there's Bicycle Kitchen on Heliotrope; Echo Park Cycles on Echo Park Blvd.; and Orange 20 on Melrose. (Full disclosure: some of us know people who work at Bike Kitchen and as a store we collaborated with Orange 20 last year... so you know.. bias, etc.)

But be that as it may, I have as yet to see such a lovingly put together tribute as this. Issue 2 is hot off the presses:

Here, I'll let them speak for themselves...

"Boneshaker Magazine is a celebration of cycling and the people who do it.

Full of articles, personal stories and anecdotes from people about bicycles and biking around the globe. It is our hope that the magazine will both inspire and entertain, raise awareness and bring a smile to your face...and appeal to both bike-heads and to those who may not yet even have experienced the true joy and freedom that can be found from our two-wheeled friends."

Plus, the damn thing looks great.

And now, just a little shout out to the awesome Magma Books out of the UK for turning us onto the magazine. So ride on by and pick up a copy, just remember to lock up those front wheels and watch your seat!

Take the Art Garfunkel challenge!

2010-08-22T19:37:00.000-07:00

Browse a list of all of the books Art Garfunkel has read
on his personal website.

Browse a selection of his favorite books of all time,
conveniently displayed all together at Skylight Books!

delicious art

2010-08-09T13:40:00.001-07:00

We've gotten our paws on a couple of extra-special art books,
NAUGHTY TEENS/GARBANZO BEANS by Eric Yahnker
and SCHULNIK by Allison Schulnik.

TONY O'NEILL and DAN FANTE

2010-08-08T20:33:00.000-07:00

Here are a couple of shots of Tony and Dan at the reading they gave on July 28. We were going to be serving Cisco but the Cisco people didn't want to be associated with our depraved literary event! Photographs graciously provided by Gena Mohwish.

The Return of HOT SUMMER NIGHTS!

2010-07-29T19:01:00.000-07:00

This summer sees the return of HOT SUMMER NIGHTS; our crazy, anything goes, ten to midnight extravaganza. We're having live bands, trivia nights, Bukowski's 90th birthday party. 10pm til Midnight, every Saturday in July and August.

You (and really, we) never know exactly what's going to happen, but it's always interesting. Join us for free entertainment, thoughtful discussion, and whatever else we feel like doing.

The tentative schedule plays like this:

July 31 - Fragile Gang and Whqles perform live!

August 7 - Skylight Books Olympics featuring Infinite Jest badminton, thumb wrestling summer slam, rubber band target shooting, etc.

August 14 - Charles Bukowski's theoretical 90th birthday party with support from the Goethe Institute, and including readings, screenings, a Buk cake from Straight Outta Chocolate and plenty of booze.

August 21 - The wolrd premiere performance and filming of Skylight's house band Staff Juice's first rock opera, the epic story of Rabbitar(D), a tale of a genetically engineered 6 foot tall rabbit with snakes for arms who, with the help of Lucifer, breaks out of his government lab to spend one glorious night of freedom blitzed out of his gourd. Think Grease 2 as re-written by Darren Lynn Bousman and Hall & Oates, and directed by Werner Herzog. We want this filmed from many, many different cameras, which we'll edit together, so if you'd like to be a part of the movie version, bring along any video device you have, no matter the quality and film it yourself.

August 28 - Bon and Jason (of NITZER EBB!) performing as BIPER!

Good (?) News for Richard Brautigan Fans

2010-07-29T14:06:00.000-07:00

There are several exciting Brautigan-related film projects in the works. First up is a

documentary on his life, with quite a few familiar names attached, including Jeff Bridges, Peter Coyote and, of course, that dude who legally changed his name to Trout Fishing in America. There are also three feature films currently in the planning stages: The Abortion, The Hawkline Monster (the only Brautigan book I can actually envision as a successful film) and A Confederate General from Big Sur, which Benicio Del Toro appears to be trying to direct. I have very mixed feelings about my favorite novels being turned into movies (remember Ask the Dust starring Colin Farrell? No? Exactly) especially ones as poetic as Brautigan's are. I really don't want to see a twee Wes Anderson version of The Abortion. At least they aren't trying to film In Watermelon Sugar. Do I sound negative? Sorry. I will say that the prospect of a documentary is quite wonderful and I will be first in line to buy a ticket.

"All of us have a place in history. Mine is clouds." -R.B.

SCOTT PILGRIM PREMIERE

2010-07-28T21:53:00.000-07:00

Being a bookseller in Los Angeles does have its perks! Last night I got to see the new movie Scott Pilgrim vs The World at the red carpet premiere! I loved it. I really had a blast. The movie is super fun and has its heart in the right place. It is like Inception but the sub-text is the text. I have not seen Inception. Bryan Lee O'Malley can be proud of the movie his wonderful comics have become.

Avant Ghandi

2010-07-22T13:12:00.000-07:00

Danish designer Emil Kozak has been doing some great graphic design work for a few years now. His 'Avant Ghandi' t-shirt is an example of graphic design excellence delivering minimalism, humor, a play on the classic avant garde font and perhaps even a message of 'non-violence' in a neat package. Last year Emil published a gorgeous book called 'One Day' that chronicles some of his and other designer's great works that have a impact in our day to day becoming 'visual soundtracks' to our lives. Look for it soon at the Skylight books Annex Store.

Chuck Klosterman - Hypertheticals

2010-07-21T10:04:00.000-07:00

Here's the thing about Chuck Klosterman - you either like him or are totally annoyed by him. There doesn't appear to be any middle ground. Me personally, I think he's great. I love pop culture and I think that Klosterman is really good at exploring certain subtle nuances about TV shows, or movies or Guns and Roses, and makes me rethink them in a certain light. Some of my co-workers though . . . not so much.

Anyways, if you are a fan then hopefully you've seen him read before and if you haven't then you should definitely check it out. He's a really great speaker and one of the cool things that he used to do (I don't know if he does it anymore) is read his hypertheticals. These were a series of hypothetical situations that he created to find out if you and him could be friends.

For example: You have won a prize (congratulations!). The prize has two options, and you can only chose one of them. The first option is you get to spend a year in Europe with a monthly stipend of $2,000. The second option is 10 minutes on the moon. Which option do you pick?

Pretty cool question right?!

So now Klosterman has collected 50 of these types of questions and put them in neat little box. I recently took one on a road trip with me and it managed to kill a lot of time.

Questions included: Would you have unprotected sex with a homeless person if it guaranteed that in five years homelessness would be completely eliminated from the world?

Would you choose to be twice as smart as you are now (your vocabulary doubles, your ability to problem solve doubles, etc) or would you rather never feel sick again (even when you are) and you can be whatever weight you want regardless of what you eat or how little, or much, you exercise?

It's a great gift for yourself or someone you know and as always, you can pick up your copy here at skylightbooks.

TTFN

Olaf Hajek

2010-07-18T16:20:00.000-07:00

Olaf Hajek is a very talented painter that has a colorful book called 'Flowerheads' coming out of German artbook powerhouse 'Gelstaten'. Look for it soon in our Annex Store.

Alex Prager

2010-07-18T15:55:00.000-07:00

Alex Prager is a Los Angeles photographer creating much buzz in the contemporary photography scene in the last couple years. Her subject matter in a nutshell deals with retro styled 'Valley girls' in full make up and almost manequin like, going about their days...watching movies, smoking cigarettes, being attacked by birds and swimming from their cars that just plunged in the ocean...you know... just the usual 'valley drama'. Her new book 'Big Valley/Weekend' means that we can take his work to show our family and friends what our great city is all about. Look for this gem in our store soon.

Judging by their cover

2010-07-18T15:14:00.000-07:00

We've always been told not to judge books by their cover, but some of us take pride in our literary purchases...and they end up decorating our homes by default.

London based David Pearson is a graphic designer doing some gorgeous work for Peguin Books, perhaps turning our book hoarding into a form of art collecting.

FANCIES AND GOODNIGHTS

2010-07-07T17:41:00.000-07:00

Reason #4 why working in a bookstore is the best job in the world (if you have no care for being able to afford anything other than books):
Customer's recommendations.
Part of the thrill in selling books is being able to turn readers on to books and authors. Introducing new readers to "the club". I get to imagine what it must be like reading the first chapter of Ask the Dust by John Fante for the first time, and to think I had something to do with introducing that excitement to someone else is a delight. Dennis Cooper, Jeanette Winterson, Dodie Bellamy, Evan S. Connell...or even finding someone who has never read Raymond Carver or Donald Barthelme or Kenneth Patchen or Mary Gaitskill or Lorrie Moore or Joan Didion. But how did I come across these finds myself? Who turned the bookseller on to these wonderful writers? There is definitely a thrill in the discovery. I remember walking into House of Fiction as a scruffy 13 year old and pulling a book called On the Road off the shelf. I bought it based on the cover (a jazzy watercolor with a quote referencing "wild youth" - yeah, that spoke to me), I had no idea who Jack Kerouac was or what the blurbs meant by "beat". What happens next goes something like this: boy's skull explodes with pleasure, boy looks up anything to do with beat, boy learns how to find marginal subcultures, moves to San Francisco and becomes a freak punk. Maybe I'm skipping around. Since working at Skylight I have had the opportunity to discover new writers (Jonathan Ames, Aimee Bender, Matthew McIntosh) and have been introduced by fellow booksellers to writers like Tom Drury, Davy Rothbart, and Taiyo Matsumoto.
I get used to thinking I know all the great books or authors or at least have heard about them. But then the best thing happens: a fellow book-loving customer comes in and blows my world right open. It feels so good to get turned on again, right? It was a customer that made me read Jonathan Lethem's Motherless Brooklyn. And now a short conversation has led me to read my new favorite find: Fancies and Goodnights by John Collier. All I needed to hear was that one of the stories was about a Squirrel pretending to be stuffed and mounted for his love, a successful female hunter, and I was sold. The stories, written in the 1930s and 40s, are concise, modern anti-fables full of wit and humor. In doing research I found out he had connections to both Alfred Hitchcock and the Twilight Zone. But his stories go beyond the joy of his narratives, his sentences are so gratifying. The first line from the opening story entitled Bottle Party: "Franklin Fletcher dreamed of luxury in the form of tiger-skins and beautiful women. He was prepared, at a pinch, to forgo the tiger-skins." Only Richard Yates has made me as happy with a first sentence.
Working at Skylight Books I see a lot of words, covers, jacket-flaps...sometimes it can get overwhelming. I'm drowning in a book sea! I get lazy, start judging books by the author photo (no dogs in author photos! and no hands near the face!) or the one line test (open a book and read the first line you see - "But I...don't owe anyone anything!"*). So it is so wonderful and satisfying when a customer can walk in here and change my life. That sounds extreme maybe? But really, a new book, a new idea, a new feeling, can be a total game changer.

*Crime and Punishment

New Jonathan Franzen

2010-07-07T13:28:00.000-07:00

Just finished the new Jonathan Franzen novel while vacationing in Hawaii and the ending was so awesome that I had to reread it three times because I found it so satisfying. It's very much in the vein of The Corrections in that the bulk of the story revolves around the family dysfunction that Franzen seems really specialize in, so if you liked that novel, then you are absolutely going to love this one.

Freedom is really epic in its scope, not epic like say James Joyce's Ulysses, but more like you see a complete character arc from beginning to end. You are introduced to the three main characters as teenagers, stay with them as them move into college, watch them become full fledged adults and then finally see how they deal with life as middle-aged folk.

Because this is a Franzen novel the characters are generally manipulative, extremely passive aggressive and fundamentally damaged in some way. While they are not really likeable people there is something about Franzen's writing style that compels you to keep reading. Maybe it's a sense of masochism, to see how much more shit he can heap upon his characters, or maybe it's just simple curiousity to see where he's going to take us next. Whatever the case, Freedom is a long (572 pages), epic and ultimately super satisfying read. Due out on August 31.

Pre-order yours today at www.Skylightbooks.com

A new David Mitchell novel!

2010-06-11T21:17:00.000-07:00

When the advance copies of David Mitchell's new novel, The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, came in the mail a couple of months ago, it was a big day for Skylighters. Since then, several staffers have either read the book or are in the process of reading it. I just finished, and let me tell you, it's astoundingly good.

I know that, in fact, it shouldn't be astounding that it's so good -- everyone I know who has read his novels (Cloud Atlas, Black Swan Green, and Number9Dream) has said only complimentary things about them. And reviewers are fond of calling him brilliant, a virtuoso, and so on. But if you're like me, this particular novel may not sound at first like the kind of book you usually enjoy. It's set in the Dutch East Indies Company's outpost in Nagasaki, Japan, and begins in 1799. I'm not much of a reader of historical fiction; I prefer the meandering depths of a thousand-page book on the ennui of the 20th-century under-30 set to the set dressing and costuming of a modern book set in the distant past. Mitchell, however, puts his characters first and foremost, and this book feels 100% modern even when it deals with issues that only existed in its very peculiar time and place (which are myriad and fascinating). It doesn't hurt that intermingled with the moral and philosophical dilemmas are bona fide adventure, betrayal, and romance, making particularly Parts II and III real page-turners.

Also, let's not forget that Mitchell is a helluva writer. I'm talking, you'll stop dead in your reading tracks and reread the paragraph of page you just finished because it's so beautifully written. My coworker Emily started the book before me, and when she was only a few dozen pages in, she found a paragraph that was so perfect she insisted I read it right then and there. It's the kind of writing that turns readers into book evangelists.

The book comes out on June 29. You can call us at (323) 660-1175 to reserve a copy. Also, don't miss our event with David Mitchell on July 23!

Interviewing John Waters--Whoa!

2010-06-09T22:00:00.000-07:00

John Waters came by to sign his new book "Role Models" about (in)famous men and women who have shaped his life. They include include singers, pornstars, a murderess, and a fashion designer.

John Waters said one of the best things ever said about how to live your life: "If you go home with somebody and they don't have books, don't fuck 'em." Sage advice, indeed.

For all those Celebs who wish to remain Anonymous...

2010-06-01T13:30:00.000-07:00

...why not walk around like this all the time?

Hannis, a coworker who's leaving us for NYC, recommends this book on his way out the door. Come to the store and check out his shelf talker. And former coworker Edan makes a rather convincing smoker, eh? Or not. It's hard to hold a book like you hold a cigarette!

If you ever notice us taking crazy photos like this in the store, it's because I have another blog! It's called Corpus Libris, and I post photos of bodies and books. If you've got any to contribute, send 'em to corpuslibris@gmail.com. And I'll post 'em!

Whatchu talkin' about St. Peter?

2010-05-28T18:35:00.000-07:00

Hello, folks. As you may or not know, today, May 28, we lost someone. This is not related to a book, but I feel that we here at Skylight are more than just a bookstore. And besides, we have a book club called "Child of the 80s", so this fits.

Gary Coleman passed away today at the age of 42.

It has been a sad moment for all of us here, and so we wanted to have a sort of tribute to the man. He didn't have the easiest life, but we loved him, and most of us grew up watching him.

Goodbye, old friend.

More Books Featured on "Lost"

2010-05-17T11:38:00.000-07:00

As we head down the home stretch (only two episodes left!) I thought now would be a good time to feature more books from Lost. [SPOILER ALERT] I'm going to assume that everybody who's reading this post has watched the last few episodes but if not then PLEASE STOP READING as I don't want to be the a-hole who ruined some of the latest Lost mysteries because you haven't caught up yet. For a more in-depth look at Lost books you should go here to DarkUFO.com

The Stand by Stephen King
While this book is never explicitly seen on the show, Stephen King is mentioned at least twice (Carrie is the book that the Others are reading for their Book Club when Oceanic Flight 815 crashes on the island, and fake Henry Gale asks Locke for any Stephen King while he is being held hostage in the Hatch.) The producers have also stated that The Stand was a major influence on the show. The novel is about a group of survivors who attempt to defeat an evil army who want to take control of the world. Also features a terrible Man in Black with super powers. Pretty similar to Jacob's people vs Man in Black's people.

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carrol
Again, this book is never actually seen in the show but several references to it have been made throughout the years, including Locke saying that he is chasing a white rabbit, and one of the Dharma Stations is called the Looking Glass Station. The novel is about a girl named Alice who falls into a hole and enter a mysterious fantasy world filled with strange talking creatures and weird riddles.

Fear and Trembling by Soren Kierkegaard
Found in a backpack in a cave outside the Temple in the LA X episode. Probably belonged to one of the members from Rousseau's science team. The book is a philosophical meditation on the nature of God and faith and faith's relationship with ethics and morality. All themes that Lost has been touching upon throughout the show's existence.

Bad Twin by Gary Troup
I would feel bad if I didn't at least mention this meta-book. Featured on the first season of Lost, the "author" was on flight 815 and survived the crash only to be sucked up in the jet engine and killed. The book features references to the Widmore Family, the Hanso Foundation, Jacob and Esau, a mysterious island and electromagnetic healing properties. Both Hurley and Sawyer are seen reading the manuscript, although Jack burns the manuscript before Sawyer can finish. Should also be noted that we now know that the Man in Black is Jacob's bad twin. Also, Gary Troup is an anagram for purgatory.

Have fun this week watching the series finale and hoping that we don't get an ending a la "The Sopranos" or "Seinfeld." (Gosh, I hope that I didn't just jinx it.)

p.s. if you like these images go to damoncarltonandapolarbear.com

2010-05-07T21:14:00.000-07:00

Love her or hate her, Uffie has just given us love in BlackBook.
This is an old song, like years (NSFW)
but girl's about to drop her debut album. Check her out.

Horrible Bookmark Ideas

2010-05-07T14:25:00.000-07:00

Happy Friday! Here are horrible things to use as bookmarks.

16. Chicken Fat
15. Leaky pen
14. Water
13. Dipstick (used)
12. Hookers (used)
12a. Hookers (new)
11. Another book
10. My tongue
10a. Somebody else's tongue
9. Feces
8. A monkey's paw
7. The Oxford English Dictionary
6. Mud
5. Creamed corn
4. Animal fur
3. Rusty nails
2. Stickers
1. Bacon (But it would make the book smell oh so good.)

INTRIGUING: Emily interviews Emily St. John Mandel

2010-05-03T12:54:00.000-07:00

If you're an indie bookseller, chances are you've heard of, read, and loved Emily St. John Mandel's books. And chances are that you and I have had a conversation about them. But I realized, and then began to worry, that I don't think very many of my customers at my very own store know about Emily's books. How could I have let this happen? Is this not a failure of the most basic of my bookselling skills? So, in remedy, I will do several things. First, I will share synopses and my short reviews for each title. Then, I will tell you how you can get a DISCOUNT on one or both books, because I want you to read them that badly. And finally, I'll share Emily's answers to some questions I asked, both for those who need more convincing and for those who already know how good Emily's books are.

Last Night in Montreal: Synopsis
"Lilia Albert has been leaving people behind for her entire life. She spends her childhood and adolescence traveling constantly and changing identities. In adulthood, she finds it impossible to stop. Haunted by an inability to remember her early childhood, she moves restlessly from city to city, abandoning lovers along with way, possibly still followed by a private detective who has pursued her for years. Then her latest lover follows her from New York to Montreal, determined to learn her secrets and make sure she's safe. Last Night in Montreal is a story of love, amnesia, compulsive travel, the depths and the limits of family bonds, and the nature of obsession."

My thoughts: "I am dumbfounded that this is a debut novel. The pacing is impeccable, the characters are intriguing and well developed. The details the author chooses to highlight are poetic and evocative, and the paragraphs are well crafted -- everything I love in a novel. And Mandel tells a great story with utmost efficiency -- in all, extremely impressive."

The Singer's Gun: Synopsis
"Everyone Anton Waker grew up with is corrupt. His parents are dealers in stolen goods, and his first career was a partnership venture with his cousin Aria; they sold forged passports and social security cards to illegal aliens together, until Anton began to long for a less corrupt way of living in the world and set out to change his life. By his late twenties he has reinvented himself as a successful middle manager at a water systems consulting firm. Anton leads a happy, steady life, engaged to be married and working in a job he loves, until a routine corporate background check reveals that contrary to what the framed diploma on his office wall might suggest, Anton never actually attended Harvard. In the meantime, his secretary has disappeared, and his cousin Aria is blackmailing him; if he doesn't do one last job for her, she'll tell his unsuspecting new wife that Anton's diploma is a fake. As Anton's carefully constructed life begins to disintegrate around him, he's forced to choose between his loyalty to his family and his longing to live honorably in the world."

My thoughts: "Emily Mandel has done it again -- she's given her readers intriguing characters and a story that develops as much by revealing secrets from the past as by events unfolding in the present. Her narrative voice is so compelling and clear for a young writer -- she is definitely one to watch!"

So, how do you get a discount on these books? You can order either one from our website and get a 15% discount, or you can order BOTH for 20% off. I'll make sure to figure in the discount before we charge your card. If you prefer to come into the store, mention the word INTRIGUING (which I unwittingly used in both blurbs) and we'll give you the discount then and there.

And now, for the interview portion:

EP: As readers, we all have favorite writers -- do you have a writer who you aspire to be like or to write like?

ESJM: I don't want to write like anyone else, but there are writers whose work I greatly admire, and whose styles have influenced me a lot -- Norman Mailer, JD Salinger, Milan Kundera, Michael Ondaatje, Ernest Hemingway, and Julio Cortazar are the ones who come immediately to mind.

EP: How would you describe your own writing? Would you call it a specific "type" of fiction?

ESJM: I'm honestly not sure how to categorize it at this point. At least I'm not alone in this -- I've seen it categorized variously as Literary Fiction, General Fiction, Crime Fiction, Women's Fiction, Thrillers, and Suspense. When people ask about genre I usually tell them that I'm writing literary fiction, but that the books could also be categorized as criminal mysteries. What I've been trying to do in my work is write fiction that's as literary as anything out there, but with the strongest possible plotting and narrative drive.

EP: In earlier interviews, you've mentioned the image (of driving endlessly through the desert) that started Last Night in Montreal. Did The Singer's Gun have a similar starting point?

ESJM: It was similar in the sense that it began with a fairly vague premise -- I didn't go into it with a story in mind, let alone any idea how it would end. It began with a couple of disconnected ideas. I remember the day I started thinking about the book -- it was about a week after my wedding, and I was sitting at a cafe table in a piazza on the island of Ischia off the south coast of Italy... There was a story I'd heard recently that I couldn't stop thinking about -- it was about a man who realized on his honeymoon that he'd made a mistake, and he and his wife had divorced amicably about six months later. It was fascinating and a little horrifying to think about a marriage collapsing so rapidly. In The Singer's Gun I shortened the timeline even further, so that the marriage doesn't survive the honeymoon.

At the same time, there's a story I've always been interested in -- a friend of my extended family, who shall remain nameless, needed a job that required a particular degree... The man was a ferociously intelligent autodidact and had the knowledge required to do the job he wanted, but didn't have the diploma. It happens that he has a fairly common name; he did some research and found out that someone with his name had graduated with the degree he needed from a good university a few years earlier -- so he wrote a letter to the university in question, requesting a copy of his diploma. To the best of my knowledge his fraud was never discovered, and he went on to have a successful career.

That scenario is played out almost verbatim in The Singer's Gun, except that Anton does get caught in his deception, and he does suffer the consequences. The idea of Anton having a shadowy past tied into my idea about a man leaving his wife on his honeymoon. For me the process of developing the plot involves coming up with a premise (in Last Night in Montreal it was this idea of someone traveling forever; in The Singer's Gun, it's a man leaving his wife on their honeymoon). Every premise raises questions, and it's answering these questions that the plot is formed -- i.e., why would a man leave his wife on his honeymoon? Perhaps if he were being blackmailed. What makes it possible to blackmail him? Obviously he must have a shady past.

EP: You used to study dance. Can you think of any parallels between your work as a dancer and your work as a writer?

ESJM: I think that there are parallels in terms of the degree of discipline required. I also think that having been a dancer prepares you very well for the writing life, because being a writer can be difficult, but being a dancer is much, much harder. Writers like to complain about the sheer unglamorousness of being a writer, the rejections and bad reviews and such, but none of that compares to dance auditions: the experience of being in a room with two hundred other women, all of you in skin-tight clothes with numbers pinned to your leotards, competing for one job, and if you should happen to twist your knee then your career's over. If you've experienced that, the rejections and disappointments inherent in being a writer kind of seem like not that big a deal.

EP: I know you have cats because I've seen pictures online of them occupying your writing space. In The Singer's Gun, Anton Waker is very attached to his cat, to the point that he has it shipped to him in Italy from New York. Do you have any crazy tales of traveling with cats?

ESJM: I wish I did! I sometimes wish I could take them with me on tour -- I spent ten days in Calgary and Banff for a festival last year, which was a tremendous opportunity and a great honor, but also felt like a long time to be away from home. It actually would've been nice to have a cat or two to keep me company in the hotel room.

[I don't know if we can loan her out for your hotel room, but you can come play with our cat Franny if you need a fix while on your tour!]

IN BRIGHTEST DAY: GEOFF JOHNS & YOU

2010-04-29T16:16:00.000-07:00

Hi. I'm Darren Clavadetscher and I've been reading comics my entire life. In that time, I've watched comics evolve from a cult pursuit of hardcore fans to widespread acceptance in popular media. Any legitimate artform deserves to be judged on its own terms. The comic book, in particular, the superhero comic, is no different.

Which brings us to Geoff Johns, whose impact on the development of the modern American Super-hero mythos is incalcuable. As a writer he has shifted the focus of DC COMICS' classic characters, such as the FLASH and GREEN LANTERN, firmly into the modern day, without sacrificing the core concepts that made them great. As the newly appointed Chief Creative Officer for DC COMICS/ENTERTAINMENT, Johns' focus has now expanded from the printed page to the utilization of these icononic characters in all aspects of media including film and television.

On May 8th at 5pm, Geoff Johns will be sitting down with me for an indepth discussion of his work and to sign copies of ABSOLUTE GREEN LANTERN: REBIRTH.

P.S. There's a ring here with your name on it.

Me, You and Every DVD We Know

2010-04-28T10:20:00.000-07:00

Books, books, books, books, DVDs, books, books, books, books.

Wait a minute! Did I just write DVDs? Well gosh would you look at that, we just got a plethora of DVDs in the mail! Yes, that's right my fellow Skylighters, now on top of buying classy art books or hoping-to-get-that-cute-coffee-shop-guy/girl-to-talk-to-me-about-this-book book, you can now purchase a whole slew of awesome Criterion and non-Criterion DVDs.

They make for nice housewarming gifts, conversation starters, or a decorative decoration and you can watch them too! Titles span from the mainstream - Slackers, Videodrome, Homicide and Spartacus - to the more esoteric - Salo or the 120 Days of Sodom, the Night Porter, That Obscure Object of Desire - among others.

And don't forget to check out our selection of sale DVDs as well where you can check out the comedy stylings of Borat for only $6.98, or go on a rousing high seas adventure with Captain Jack Sparrow and the Black Pearl for just $9.98.

And we'll see you next time, at the movies.

DIESEL BOOKSTORE'S POETRY VIDEOS

2010-04-13T12:24:00.000-07:00

For Poetry Month Diesel: A Bookstore is releasing a video a day. Each video features a poem performed - such a great way to celebrate!
See them all by clicking the link:
Diesel: A Bookstore.

Hamlet at the Bootleg Theater

2010-04-12T17:15:00.001-07:00

A 1930's Los Angeles warehouse starts a new life as Bootleg, an art hub that has music, comedy, and all kinds of performance. Last weekend a new theatre group, l’Enfant Terrible, opened Hamlet, Prince of Puddles - an all ages adaptation of Shakespeare’s classic play.
The space is great and close yet off the beaten track. The theater company is dedicated to creating family friendly plays for all ages and reaching a variety of communities throughout Los Angeles. Click on the link to get more information.
Bootleg Theater is located at:
2220 Beverly Boulevard Los Angeles, CA 90057,

War by Sebastian Junger

2010-04-07T11:32:00.001-07:00

I have to admit that I have always been a little ambivalent about the military. While my dad and all of his brothers were in the Marines during the Vietnam War they rarely talked about what they did over there and my dad never once broached the idea of having me enlist at any point in my young adult life. Everything that I know about war I've gleamed from TV (Band of Brothers and The Pacific) or movies (Full Metal Jacket, The Hurt Locker) So I didn't think much about War by Sebastian Junger when grabbed it from the bookcase on my way to the airport. Let me tell you though, I started thinking about it a lot after I started reading it.

Set in one of the most remote regions in Afghanistan, Junger spent 15 months following and living with a single platoon to document what life is really like for soldiers. I know what you might be thinking, yeah yeah, embedded journalist blah blah blah big deal, but no this is nothing like that at all.

"As a civilian among soldiers I was aware that a failure of nerve by me could put other men at risk, and that idea was almost as mortifying as the very real dangers up there. I truly only froze once when we got hit unexpectedly and very hard. I didn't have my body armor or camera near me - stupid, stupid - and endured thirty seconds of paralyzed incomprehension."

Junger does two things really well in this book; he talks in-depth about big idea stuff (the nature of war and heroism), while also cramming his book with little details to give you a real idea of what life was like for these soldiers.

One of the things that really stood out was just how important attention to detail. Having loose shoe laces, or not drinking enough water not only endangered the individual but put the whole unit at risk. "There was no such thing as personal safety out there; what happened to you happened to everyone. The attention to detail at a base like Restrepo forced a kind of clarity on absolutely everything a soldier did until I came to think of it as a kind of Zen practice: the Zen of not fucking up."

The other thing that the book does is avoid getting political about the war. It does not give any inclination about whether or not the US military is a necessary force to have in Afghanistan and this lack of political agenda totally gives the book have a balanced and unbiased feeling.

A totally awesome read! Due on on May 11, 2010.