Boneshaker 42-400

Just Released- Boneshaker 42-400!

Continuing Boneshaker's literary and utilitarian tradition, the editors are proud to present BA 42-400, the fourth installment of our bicycling almanac. In this issue you will be stunned by a sparkling new translation of Charles-Albert Cingria's beautiful 1938 essay "In Praise of Cycling," as well as extremely useful advice for commuters by the co-founder of the St. Louis Regional Bicycle Federation. Bursting with some stellar new poems (including two by one of the Best New Poets 2008), an interview with the author of Pedaling Revolution, Jeff Mapes, and of course a full moon ride schedule, lists, reviews (including David Byrne's Bicycle Diaries), a commuter diary from the least bicycle friendly state, and even love letters from the saddle, BA 42-400 fulfills our promise to encourage the silent soldiers of the bicycle army.

Available for Six Dollars at Matter Bookstore and on our website.

The Complex of All of These

Check out this amazing stop-action video from the Women's Studio Workshop in Rosendale, NY.

Gift Books 2009, Part 1

Gift Books 2009, Part 1

The Bicycle Army Update from Wolverine Farm Publishing

The Bicycle Army Update from Wolverine Farm Publishing

Rare, Beautiful, and Strange

(posted by Paul Binkley)

Aside from Matter's cozy nook in the back of the Bean Cycle, we also sell some of the rare, valuable books we get in donations on a site called Abe Books. Being one of our main Abe posters since last July, I thought I'd take a moment to talk about some of the more interesting books that we have online.

Slaves of Sleep and Science Fiction Short Stories, Volume 1 both by L. Ron Hubbard

I'm no Scientologist (and not even a Hubbard fan, really) but these are two of the most beautiful books we've ever had. Both books are in near flawless shape, bound in teal imitation leather, with the edges of every page, as well as all inscriptions and illustrations on the covers, gilt in gold. Neither of these books being Scientology's pivotal book Dianetics we haven't really had Hubbard faithfuls rushing to get these two, but the books being as nice as they are and being a general science fiction fan myself, I'm hoping they find a good home soon.

The Continent: An Illustrated Weekly Magazine, Volume II

Now, what makes this one so noteworthy, is that this book was published way back in 1882, very possibly making it the oldest book we have. For better or worse, the book definitely has signs of it's age, but we should hope we still look as pretty as this book at 127. The book has a fading, dark red cover with gilt lettering. Inside is a collection of all the issues of The Continent, a collection of various writings: prose, poetry, and articles. Many of these are accompanied by ink illustrations. With an aging binding and yellowing pages, this book won't be around forever, but it has many years of a life left in it.

Haiku, Volume 4: Autumn-Winter by R. H. Blyth

A great, like-new collection of the traditional Japanese poetic form. This collection of poems from many different authors (primarily dating from 1902 to 1952) is presented in English with standard haiku formatting, as well as the poems written in Japanese, and accompanied by a paragraph of annotation and further exploration. Together with Blyth's preface, this book is a great introduction to and demonstration of this classic Japanese art form.

Well, those only three of the hundreds of interesting books we have online, let alone our thousands in our store. Some of my other favorites are books such as Animated Cartoons, a book on animation published during animation's early life, in 1923: the Walt Disney Company's first year in business. Two other books I found interesting were volumes I and II of The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, published in 1959 that as far as I have been able to determine (with no luck finding any other copies) is in Hungarian.

So, if you want to see what other rare, beautiful, and strange books we might have, take a look at what we have listed on Abe or come on down to the Bean Cycle to see what we have in our store.

Number One Reason You Should Join Twitter.

(Besides Matter Bookstore's sporadic and self-promotional tweets)

http://twitter.com/McSweeneysBooks

Propeller Oct 09

Check out Boneshaker editor Evan P. Schneider's piece in Propeller Magazine. It's a great little photo essay covering our involvement with this year's Tour de Fat.

Here's the link:
Propeller Oct 09