a lazy blogger's links

I have nothing original to say today, but these are a few of my favorite things of late online:

• Chip Kidd discussing his process on designing Murakami's 1Q84 cover.
• this weekly list of diversions for kids called "Because the Sunday New York Times Doesn't Have Comics."
• a NYT piece answering this: "When an e-reader is loaded with thousands of books, does it gain any weight?" In short? Yes. Barely.
• Our peers in DC at Politics and Prose have a swell FB page that gleans advice on good living from famous authors.
• Finally, on our own FB page, there's quite a lively discussion of literary Halloween costumes (though thankfully no Virginia Woolf suggestions. Yet).

Now go read a good book (like the one I'm enjoying now, Peter Orner's new novel Love and Shame and Love).

One Q Eight Four!

When you're raffling signed copies of Haruki Murakami's long-awaited epic 1Q84 at a midnight book launch party, you obviously pull the tickets out of an empty case of Sapporo.

Check out some pictures of the event on Knopf's tumblr and at the Citrus Report.

And thanks for coming out, everyone! Let's do this more often, eh?

a lovely, bookish Spike Jonze video

Has everyone seen this yet? It's a short and lovely stop-motion animation set at Shakespeare and Company, the vaunted English-language bookshop in Paris. Enjoy.

Spike Jonze: Mourir Auprès de Toi on Nowness.com.

Or click through to see it bigger; it's worth it.

the Tuesday interview: Hannah Moskowitz

[courtesy of our fine friend at royalquietdeluxe]

There's something about Hannah Moskowitz. She's sorta funny and real. She's written these wonderful books that all the reviewers call raw and poetic and they're right. And she tweets a lot. I started with Break, about a boy who sets out to break every bone in his body. But of course, there's Invincible Summer and you can preorder the hardback of Gone, Gone, Gone now.

RQD: What are you working on now? What interests you about these characters?

Hannah Moskowitz: Right now I'm working on another draft of (what is currently titled) Marco Impossible, my next middle grade book. It's told from the POV of the best friend of an openly gay 13-year-old, so I get to play with a lot of stuff that you don't usually see in MG. There's kissing.

RQD: What other art or artists play a role in your work?

HM: Tom Stoppard, definitely, as far as plays go. Motion City Soundtrack, Death Cab for Cutie, and Bright Eyes for music.

RQD: What book, story or poem do you return to over and over?

HM: Indigo's Star by Hilary McKay. I have no idea how many times I've read it.

RQD: What are you reading now?

HM: Right now I'm working on Now Playing, the sequel to Stoner and Spaz, but it's taking me a while because I'm an English major and I have to read a lot for school. My reading-for-pleasure time is very limited during the school year. It pretty much sucks.

RQD: What did you read as a kid?

HM: I read a TON of Middle Grade from a very early age; my mom used to read it to me when I was very young. And since I still read it, that's the age group that feels so timeless to me. There's a part of me that will always be twelve, I think.

Album cover: Death Cab for Cutie Narrow Stairs

Announcing the Apple-a-Month Club

Here's your chance to spend less time shopping and more time reading

We want you to visit the store. We stay open late and often and are always happy to see you. But we realize that for a lot of you, there are factors that might make it difficult to visit the Inner Richmond. Whether your schedule is too full, or your commute too long, or you've moved away (do you miss us? we miss you), we understand that getting here can sometimes prove challenging.

With that in mind, we've started a new subscription service, the Apple-a-Month Club, in which we, your ever-diligent Green Apple staff, scour piles of new fiction releases to find the perfect paperback to send directly to your home each month (for 3, 6, or 12 month installments).

We're casting our nets far and wide in our search for a book we feel so excited about that we want to send it out into the world: one month the book might be a page-turner from an author we wish more people read; the next might be a new translation or an overlooked small press gem. Whatever the case, we'll send you (or the lucky recipient of a gift subscription--hint, hint) the book and a handwritten card as to why we've chosen as we did.

For more information and to order a subscription in any of the available installments, please visit our subscription page.

[Photo: Andre Kertesz]