This is pretty exciting news! Well, to me anyway… you see, I’m a HUGE fan of both Marc Maron AND Davis Sedaris. So, it’s so ultra cool that Marc interviewed David yesterday and you can hear it all, right now, right here, down below. The weird thing though, David Sedaris has a big book out right now, “Let’s Explore Diabetes with Owls” and during the podcast they don’t even mention it but they sure do talk a lot about Marc Maron’s new memoir, “Attempting Normal”. OK, it’s still a great interview, check it out!

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Today, July 3rd, would have been the 130th birthday of the Famous Book Author, Franz Kafka (1883-1924). So, to celebrate, we’re posting this portrait of him that was painted by Andy Warhol. We’re also going to honor him by reading his classic book, The Metamorphosis.

Happy Birthday Franz Kafka!

Here’s some fun news to share in the turbulent world of Book Publishing. The merger between Random House and Penguin Group has finally been shared by the new company. In fact, this photo shows the brand-new company logo that went into effect on July 1st, 2013. This special sign was featured in the Lobby of the Random House Publishing building in New York City!!

Also, down below is a sharper image of the new logo… and we totally love it!!

Over at THE NEW YORKER Magazine Website, in their PAGE-TURNER section, they have a special monthly feature they like to call “Books To Watch Out For”. They usually list about 9 or 10 new titles coming out in that period that have caught their attention and the choices are always very good and also very well-thought out. Well, we’re really proud to say that for JULY they added David Rakoff’s new book, "Love, Dishonor, Marry, Die, Cherish, Perish: A Novel" (Doubleday) to the list!

Now, this book won’t officially be out until July 16th, but right now you can read their extremely excellent review (and story description) by following this link RIGHT HERE. We want to thank them for adding this important book to the list. What an honor!

OK, just to clarify. We say “important book” because it is, quite sadly, David Rakoff’s very last book he wrote before he passed away last year at the age of 47. For many years his work has been enjoyed by a large group of serious fans and this has all been very sad news. Also, for people who just love reading books in general, and have never read him before, they should check him out as well because his writing is extremely clever and he has always had a really great sense of humor. We should also mention that the cover was designed by his friend, Chip Kidd, with artwork supplied by the cartoonist Seth.

Here’s some wonderful news in the book publishing world, The Collected Poems of W.S. Merwin (Library of America) just came out last month and it’s already considered a must have for every library, everywhere. This is the deluxe 2-volume boxed set that includes all of his important work. I mean, it’s 1,531 pages of great material! The set was edited by J. D. McClatchy and in a recent interview he talked about the importance of W. S. Merwin and his influence on American poetry over the last six decades. It also gives a lot of insight into what this book is about, and on Merwin’s character as well.

To view the article, please CLICK HERE.

Also, for those who want to know what work is included in this new 2-volume set, check this out:

A Mask for Janus Dancing Bears Green with Beasts The Drunk in the Furnace The Moving Target The Lice The Carrier of Ladders Writings to an Unfinished Accompaniment The Compass Flower Opening the Hand The Rain in the Trees Travels The Vixen The Folding Cliffs River Sound The Pupil Present Company The Shadow of Sirius new and uncollected poems

One last thing, the Library of America has a really great website with a ton of resources, CLICK HERE.

Sort of by crazy random accident the other day I came across a very interesting Tumblr page that is kinda fun and just a complete guilty pleasure to view. It’s called AWESOME PEOPLE READING. It’s mostly just photos of famous people reading books and magazines. I know, sort of weird huh? But it’s actually kind of a nice break from all the other information on the Internet. Check it out for yourself and you’ll see, just CLICK HERE.

Chip Kidd, after being involved with a few projects with DC Comics’ characters, bought the original artwork from All-Star Superman #10, Batman & Robin #2 and a story from the 1960′s Japanese Batman Bat-Manga comics (with the art of Jiro Kuwata) and then had them specially custom-bound with glass covers. You can see them in the Comic Archive video down below and the end result is pretty interesting. Wow, what a treasure!

Here’s a quick shout out for our friend and a great Cartoonist named Ivan Brunetti. This is to let everybody know that he did the artwork for this week’s cover of The New Yorker Magazine! His new book, Aesthetics: A Memoir, just came out last month (Yale University Press) and is doing quite well.

The theme of this week’s cover shares the trails and tribulations of starting a Gardening Box in your backyard and the rewards of doing so, perfect!

Here’s a very interesting piece of “Graphic Art” History. The 16mm short film “Mickey Mouse In Vietnam”, an anti-war movie by Lee Savage and Milton Glaser and produced for The Angry Arts Festival in 1968 has just resurfaced on the Internet. It uses animation in a very clever way. In fact, the techniques used are almost identical to the very early animation of Walt Disney so it just makes the film seem “more real”. Plus, that effect helps to add a lot of punch to the over-all message!

The co-creator of the video, Milton Glaser is among one of the most celebrated graphic designers in the United States, best known for his iconic I NY logo. Some of his other well known work includes the 1966 Bob Dylan poster and the DC bullet logo (used by DC Comics from 1977 to 2005). He also founded New York magazine with Clay Felker in 1968.

This video (posted down below, please be sure to watch it) was brought to our attention by Brian Galindo over at the BUZZFEED website. He also posted a very excellent interview with Milton Glaser about the film and they touch on some very interesting subjects. To read that article, just CLICK HERE!

The Seattle Public Library recently launched its 2013 Summer Reading Program by setting a new world record for the longest book domino chain. Here’s the video to prove it and a funny side-note is that the very first book used to set everything off has the title, “Before The Fall”.