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Title Author Publisher Price


Read more and comment... 		Test test test
2008 Flying Destructicate: Jonathan Brodsky - Make Your Own Truth Jonathan Brodsky Encyclopedia Destructica $25.00
($25.00 list)
OUT OF STOCK!
Destructicate2008
Read more and comment... 		  Limited to 200 handmade copies, this item pretty much has to be seen to be fully appreciated.  Put together by Jonathan Brodsky and the folks at Encyclopedia Destructica, it's a hand assembled slipcase containing: a hand bound hardcover book containing work by Brodsky, Alberto Almarza, Josh Atlas, Juliacks, Rick Gribenas and Paus Akid; eight file-folder-art-zines (for lack of a better term) that are hard copy manifestations of power point presentations made by eight different Pittsburgh artists (among them Unicorn Mountain's Curt Gettman) on a wide variety of topics; and a DVD that contains several pieces by Brodsky along with pieces by Almarza and Gribenas.  A limited edition, hand crafted work of multiple media art from Pittsburgh, PA.  Need we say more?
Autobiographical Writings, True Stories, Critical Essays, Prefaces and Collaborations with Artists Paul Auster $14.45
($17.00 list)
Austercollected
Read more and comment... 		The entire published prose oeuvre of this singular contemporary voice is now available, complete in one modestly priced, French-flapped, trade paperback edition.  The Invention of Solitude, Hand To Mouth, True Stories (aka The Red Notebook - a Copacetic favorite), Gotham Handbook, The Story of My Typewriter, and Northern Lights are all here.  All his previously published critical essays, prefaces, and small occasional pieces are included as well.  When you feel yourself in need of some intelligent, stimulating companionship and there's no one available, this volume will fill the bill nicely.
Comedy By Numbers Prof. Eric Hoffman™, Dr. Gary Rudoren© McSweeney's $11.90
($14.00 list)

Read more and comment... 		169 ways to be funny followed by an end-of-the-book-bonus Comedy Test:  44 questions and one extra credit.  You too can become an instant expert on all things funny.  It is to laugh.
Encyclopedia Destructica, Volume Two (aka Volume Bumba) # 2 $5.00
($5.00 list)

Read more and comment... 		 If you're looking for unique, hand-made, one-of-a-kind artistic, literary magazines that defy definition, AND are made right here in Pittsburgh, PA, well then, there's only one place to look and that's right here.  Recently funded by the ever active Sprout Fund, three new editions are currently on display.
Encyclopedia Destructica, Volume Two (aka Volume Bumba) # 3 $8.00
($10.00 list)

Read more and comment... 		 If you're looking for unique, hand-made, one-of-a-kind artistic, literary magazines that defy definition, AND are made right here in Pittsburgh, PA, well then, there's only one place to look and that's right here.  Recently funded by the ever active Sprout Fund, three new editions are currently on display.
Encyclopedia Destructica, Volume Two (aka Volume Bumba) #1 $7.00
($8.00 list)

Read more and comment... 		 If you're looking for unique, hand-made, one-of-a-kind artistic, literary magazines that defy definition, AND are made right here in Pittsburgh, PA, well then, there's only one place to look and that's right here.  Recently funded by the ever active Sprout Fund, three new editions are currently on display.
How To Be Alone Jonathan Franzen $12.60
($14.00 list)
Franzenhow
Read more and comment... 		While we're on the topic of intelligent stimulation available between two covers, we'd like to draw your attention to this fine collection of essays, also written by one of America's top contemporary fiction writers. Topics delved into here include:  whether or not its worth the trouble to bother to try to write a novel in today's day and age; why perfectly intelligent people, completely aware of the risks, nevertheless continue to smoke cigarettes; how to deal with the gradual decline and death of a parent; the prison industry -- from both inside and outside the walls; a revelatory account of how we here in America have some seriously wrong ideas about privacy; and, added to this softcover edition, a new essay on William Gaddis.  Smartly and persuasively written, you'll put down this book with a heightened sense of the world around you.
Kafka on the Shore Haruki Murakami $22.00
($25.95 list)

Read more and comment... 		And speaking of things Japanese in origin yet universal in application (you see, there is a method to our madness) here's the new Murakami novel to start off 2005 with.  The expectations for this book are of such magnitude that the hyperbole surrounding its release is a bit over the top, but we'll give you this:  it involves an "odyssey" where "Cats and people carry on conversations, a ghostlike pimp employs a Hegel-quoting prostitute, a forest harbors soldiers apparently unaged since World War II, and rainstorms of fish (and worse) fall fro the sky."
Men & Cartoons Jonathan Lethem $4.95
($19.95 list)
Men-and-cartoons
Read more and comment... 		He was just here in person -- at the Carnegie Lecture Hall, as part of the American Shorts series.  Now here's his latest book:  a collection of short stories dealing with... well, the title sort of gives it away.  Want to know more?  Check out the everyman review by a Lethem fan on Pop Matters on the one hand, and then the NY Times review by Jay McInerney, on the other.  hardcover
Starting Point: 1979 - 1996 Hayao Miyazaki Viz $27.77
($29.95 list)
Miyazakibook
Read more and comment... 		This 460 page hardcover is a dream come true for anyone wanting to learn more about the life and mind of Miyazaki, the man behind what are probably the greatest animated films of our time.  This volume collects essays, interviews, and memoirs written and conducted during the first two decades of his career.  Readers will discover his theories of animation as well as how he came to formulate them, stories of his childhood, the founding of Studio Ghibli, as well as how all these came together.  Food for thought, indeed.
When You Are Engulfed in Flames David Sedaris $22.22
($25.99 list)
Engulfedsedarisam
Read more and comment... 		22 new pieces by David Sedaris, are herein collected for the first time.  Readers of Naked, Me Talk Pretty One Day, and Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim now having something to look forward to.
1Q84 Haruki Murakami Alfred Knopf $25.00
($30.50 list)
1q84
Read more and comment... 		Yes, the "big book" of the year is here... and everywhere else, we know.  But we're not going to let that stop us from putting it out on the new arrivals table here at Copacetic.  The reviews are pouring in at such a torrential pace that we suspect that before all is said and done their combined word count will surpass even that of the novel itself, which is Murakami's most substantial yet, with the US edition clocking in at whoppin' 925 pages.  If you're looking for a book to get you through the long cold winter ahead, this may very well be your ticket.
500 Essential Graphic Novels Gene Kannenberg Jr $26.95
($29.95 list)
500essential
Read more and comment... 		There are plenty of surprises here in Dr. Kannenberg's fully illustrated and highly idiosyncratic list of his top 500 graphic novels, which is most valuable for the obscure and rare works it unearths.  Even jaded "know-it-alls" (guess not!) such as ourselves discovered new works that we now have to track down and decide for ourselves whether or not we too will deem them "essential."
A Comics Studies Reader Jeet Heer, Kent Worcester Mississippi University Press $22.22
($24.95 list)
Comicsstudies
Read more and comment... 		We knew it was only a matter of time until a book like this showed up on our shelves. To anyone interested in getting started in digging deeper into the amazing riches buried beneath the surface of the comics page, Heer and Worcester's A Comics Studies Reader is one of the best shovels money can buy.  Sure to become the default primary source text for many a Comics Studies 101 class -- as well as becoming the go to text for the comics unit in pop culture classes -- CSR is provides a number of different critical approaches to the subject, in the process providing its readers with some valuable interpretive tools.  Following the editors' introduction and Thierry Groensteen's overview essay, "Why Are Comics Still in Search of Cultural Legitimization?", the book is divided into four sections, each of which receives its own editorial intro: Historical Considerations; Craft, Art, Form; Culture, Narrative, Identity; Scrutiny and Evaluation.  While everyone will doubtless have their own ideas about what should constitute a volume such as this, and there are certainly writers whose work we were disappointed not to see included, second guessing is easy.  This is a fine survey of the burgeoning field of critical approaches to comics that serves its primary purpose quite well:  to stimulate the intellects of students and scholars of all stripes and hep the rest of the world to what we've known all along:  comics contain a motherlode of cultural treasures that will amply reward any and all who dedicate themselves to its study.