Yesterday we received a big, beautiful shipment of Building Stories, the brand new graphic novel by Chris Ware. There are a lot of reasons why we’re excited about this book – it’s been a long time in the works; many of us here are serious admirers of Ware’s work and graphic novels in general; Chris Ware will actually be here at the store talking about the new book and his work, along with Chris Hive, on October 25 – but mostly we’re excited because this book is freaking cool. (Feel free to quote me on that.)
Building Stories is like a clown car of a book. You lift the lid on the long box and start pulling out piece after piece, strip after strip, newspaper style pages, pamphlets, slender bound books; it feels as if you’ll never hit bottom. The stories of the tenants in this Chicago apartment building are allowed their own space, can be processed in any order. There is no beginning or end, there’s only diving in. Ware has achieved an open, border-less style of large scale storytelling. It’s absolutely brilliant.
Below are a few pictures of the contents of Building Stories to give you a sense of what you’ll find inside this magic box. Many thanks to our Random House rep, Liz, for showcasing her Vanna White skills in these photos.
The pictures don’t do it justice. This is something we highly recommend you experience in person.
BookPeople 
These are really cool. I am going to have to check them out.