Or perhaps taking out a billboard, because clearly, the word is not getting around fast enough. SUBTERRANEAN–NOT A USED BOOKSTORE If one more person calls about dumping their books, or asks about whether we have “an old battered copy of Thomas Paine’s Common Sense” I just may pierce my eardrums with a hot poker. Although [...]

Paula Lincoln has taken over the gallery and the front window and linked them as a beautiful and frightening Victorian garden.  It’s perfect for spring.  She’s used tar paper, fabric, and prints to hint at all the hidden ferocity of plants.  I experienced my own allergic reaction last fall where my face blew up and my eyes squeezed shut and I was [...]

Now You See Him by Eli Gottlieb (Harper, $13.99, fiction).  It seems like I’ve been reading a lot of books like this one lately.  Sort of quiet, contemplative; unhappy people dealing with their issues.  The protagonist is coming to terms with the death of his childhood best friend, which in turn is causing strife within [...]

Now in Stock: Bomb Spring, Believer 51–Film Issue   

But it will.  It’s clay.  Clay slip, precisely, and will last–if we’re lucky–through 3 rains.   It’s a gift from Leah Nguyen.  And she doesn’t plan it out ahead of time.  She just draws what she’s inspired to draw in the moment.  It’s awesome.

           Bookforum April, Bust April, Harpers April, Juxtapoz April, Wired April.

What’s the best thing that could happen to the country in the near future? Bush/Cheney actually get convicted for something: 37% Financial-sector salaries return to earth (permanently): 29% President Obama wins again in 2012: 15% Texting drivers nationwide kill themselves in ritual mass suicide: 12% Jerry Garcia’s visage added to Mount Rushmore: 4% (It was [...]

Good guy and St. Louis native Kyle Beachy stopped by our store last week to say hi and sign copies of his new novel, The Slide (Dial Press, $13). We’re always eager to do our part to support any literary talent – especially the hometown variety. Yo, it’s time to slippity-slide over to Subterranean to pick [...]

Richard Price, Lush Life (Picador, $15) Richard Price is one of those certified writer’s writers who can also boast a large popular readership (as we all know, writer’s writers don’t often enjoy this double-threat advantage; would that, say, Robert Walser or Henry Green had moved as many copies as Price does). Anyway, if you’re a member of [...]

Michael Chabon, Maps & Legends: Reading and Writing Along the Borderlands (HarperCollins $14.99) Did ya’ll see the hardcover version of this?  It was McSweeney’s and had this way cool 3-sheet dust jacket.  The paperback doesn’t have the fancypants packaging but it’s still pure Chabon.  His first non-fiction collection is a series of essays seeking to [...]