The Black Veil by Rick Moody

I haven't loved all of Rick Moody's books, but The Ice Storm, Demonology , and this book are favorites of mine. (Well, maybe "favorite" is a strong word, so I'll just say "well-liked books.") The black veil of the title refers to the Nathaniel Hawthorne story "The Minister's Black Veil," which is based on the true story of a clergyman who Moody believes may be a distant relative. Partly a quest to research Hawthorne and his possible ancestor, but moreso an account of the author's personal relationship to the story of the black veil.

It is designed to look like an old decaying antique book, the cover of which has been torn off, which, while perhaps not all that original, is nonetheless appealing to me.

We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson

This is the Penguin Deluxe Classic edition of Shirley Jackson's last novel (but the first of hers that I read), the cover of which is illustrated by Thomas Ott.

If you are going to read it, I implore you to skip the introduction by Jonathan Lethem until you have finished the whole novel, because it contains many spoilers that completely ruin the experience of reading this book. I have had this happen a number of times and I really don't understand why publishers would include an introduction to a book that revealed the ending. It would have worked much better as an afterword. (I suppose I am in a position to actually get an answer to this as I work for the publisher in question. But I have not asked yet.)

That said, it is a wonderful, creepy, short book and the cover illustrations perfectly accent the tone. The french flaps are also quite lovely.

Hicksville by Dylan Horrocks

Hicksville is one of my favorite graphic novels. A biographer visits the remote New Zealand hometown of one of the most powerful men in the comics industry, where he finds that everyone hates the former resident.

It is really a comic for comic lovers, as the inhabitants of the town are all experts on the subject ("sheep-farmers and fishermen argue the relative merits of early newspaper comic strips, while in the local lending library obscure Mongolian minicomics share the shelves with a complete run of Action comics," as the cover copy says).

The drawing is a combination of cartoony (everyone has these strange square noses) and realistic, with lovely uses of black.

Mansfield's Materia Medica and Pharmacognosy by William Mansfield, A.M., Phar.D.

My mother, who is a pharmacist, moved out of her house a few years ago and during that time she was constantly asking me to look through boxes of things she no longer wanted, just in case they were of interest to me. (Well, actually, it is still going on as she is now cleaning out her storage space--there is a never-ending supply of boxes of things to go through.) In one of those boxes, I uncovered a copy of this 1926 reference book on plants and their medical uses.

The book was published in 1926 and was once owned by a man named Philip Willcott (or so the name written on the inside front cover says).

In addition to the interesting photos of plants, what most attracted me to the book were the many handwritten notes (written in by Mr. Willcott, I will assume).

The note on the bottom left page is pretty great: "Death by asphyxiation, Insanity, Melancholia". In other words, stay away from Stramonium! (For more on the hallucinogenic effects of this plant, check out the wikipedia page.)

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson

Just watched Gonzo over the weekend and while the movie was just so-so (it started out like a made-for-TV job though the quality progressed a bit as the movie went on) it made me want to revisit Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail and Hells Angels and all the rest of HST's classic books that I read years ago.

I first heard of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas in an article in Rolling Stone when I was 14 years old. I remember finding it interesting but somehow never thought to track down a copy of the book. It didn't occur to me to do things like that when I was younger. I listened to the same two Sonic Youth albums for years until it dawned on me that they had quite a few more that I might want to check out. But I digress.

It wasn't until after the movie came out and I was reminded of that article I'd read years before that I actually went out and bought the book.

Speaking of which, I cannot put into words how much I hate movie tie-in editions. I understand why publishers do it--I just wish they weren't so ugly. I'd much prefer to see a Ralph Steadman drawing on the cover.

The first edition used some of this image from the book's opening pages. I can't picture this book without Ralph Steadman's art. The two go hand in hand.

"Terrible things were happening all around us. Right next to me a huge reptile was gnawing on a woman's neck, the carpet was a blood-soaked sponge--impossible to walk on it, no footing at all. 'Order some golf shoes,' I whispered."

"The place was full of cops. I saw this at a glance. Most of them were just standing around trying to look casual, all dressed exactly alike in their cut-rate Vegas casuals: plaid bermuda shorts, Arnie Palmer golf shirts and hairless white legs tapering down to rubberized 'beach sandals.'"

I love the random splatters throughout the book.

Play It As It Lays by Joan Didion

Joan Didion is one of my favorite writers. Everything she does is magnificent, including this novel of a Hollywood actress who drifts through life with a detachment that is startlingly bleak. It is stunning and depressing.

Bill Daniel's Mostly True

This book is a kind of companion piece to Bill Daniel's documentary Who Is Bozo Texino?, in the form of a rail zine (purporting to be published in April 1908). Shot on Super-8 and 16mm film over a 16-year period in which Daniel rode the freights, the film chronicles the search for the source of a drawing seen on railcars for more than 80 years.

While some of the book is a direct transcript from the movie, there are also many great extras, including interviews, newspaper articles, photos, maps, and illustrations from such artists as Barry McGee and Margaret Kilgallen.

I love these rail map end papers.

An article about one of the men behind the mystery, the original Bozo Texino.

A little bit about Herby, perhaps one of my favorite hobo tags.

The book includes a variety of ads, some of them real, but there are also some great fake ones promoting products like "The Hobo's Wife."

All in all, it's a beautiful looking package with some fascinating hobo lore and ephemera.