San Francisco - July 26, 2005

Completely Booked

McSweeney’s Book Club

Remember summer break? That glorious three-month expanse when school was out, doing nuthin’ was an art form, and your chief objectives were catching up on soaps and begging Mom to drive you to the mall. It ruled.

Except for one thing: the summer reading list.

Having a fourth of the year off may be a distant memory, but at least you can choose your own books these days. Our suggestion for the latest in cutting-edge fiction? The new book club from McSweeney’s, publisher of quirky literary rag Timothy McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern (edited by local hotshot Dave Eggers).

Join the club and get the next ten McSweeney’s books for $100. You can look forward to Michel Houellebecq’s H.P. Lovecraft: Against the World, Against Life; Salvador Plascencia’s The People of Paper; and Paul La Farge’s The Facts of Winter.

Other titles arrive as they roll off the presses. You’ll be booked up with good reads, filled with literary wisdom from ground-breaking authors, and supporting the independent publisher behind the nonprofit 826 Valencia writing center.

It almost takes the sting out of not having the summer months off.

Almost.

To sign up, go to mcsweeneys.net.