McSweeney's $1 Stimulus Sale

From the fabulous, and sometimes fabulist, folks at McSweeney's:

If this [message] finds you somewhere on the populated Earth, you may have heard a lot of talk of doom and gloom recently. We here at McSweeney's object. Look, we like Paul Krugman as much as anyone, and who doesn't love a good stimulus package, but all this focus on the negative can be a little counterproductive. Look around you! This is still a world full of wonders, and among these wonders are fine printed books, some of which are created by us here at McSweeney's.

We want to help you remember these wonders within easy reach. And so: This week, every book on our site is $15. Wait, not every -- some are $5. Not cheap enough? Okay, a few are $1. Go to it! Fill up a bag and help us spread the joy. Help us save America!

This is a hell of a deal, and you should take advantage of it and help promote America's most extravagant publisher of next generation literary fiction. A few recommendations from my personal library:

McSweeney's Issue 18, a manageable little volume with completed maze on the cover, and the brilliant story "Somoza's Dream" by Daniel Orozco inside.

Maps and Legends, by Michael Chabon. Essays full of wonder by this frequent slummer in the ghetto of the fantastic, including pieces on D'Aulaire's Norse Myths, Silver Age Marvel, and Howard Chaykin, wrapped in a crazy cool three-layer cartographic cover by .

All Known Metal Bands, by Dan Nelson, which is nothing less than a finely bound list of the names of all known metal bands past and present.

McSweeney's Issue 24, half-Barthelme, half hard-boiled lit fic including Christopher Howard's "How to Make Millions in the Oil Market" and Philippe Soupault's Death of Nick Carter, with a super cool embossed landscape cover.

Everything That Rises, by Lawrence Wechsler, an amazing compilation of disparate images recording strange mirroring compositions across time and space.

Here They Come, Yannick Murphy's amazing story of a girl's crazy life in 1970s New York City.

The Children's Hospital, Chris Adrian's dense novel about a hospital preserved afloat on a submerged Earth.

McSweeney's Issue 17, perhaps the most awesome of McSweeney's experiments in publishing form: a literary magazine in the form of a packet of junk mail, including Peter Ferry's beautiful story "The Accident" (in the form of a typewritten letter inside its own envelope) and a rare issue of Yeti Researcher: The Magazine of the Society for Cryptic Hominid Investigation.

Any issue of Wholphin, McSweeney's amazing DVD magazine of short films involving things like leaping ants, God looking down through his gun scope, considering of the lobster, and singing Led Zeppelin songs backwards.

The Riddle of the Traveling Skull, by Harry Steven Keeler, the most insanely absurd vintage pulp you will ever read, rendered technicolor cool by this beautiful republished edition.