We make books

I am continually amazed at the ways in which a small selection of good editions will draw interest and thoughts from customers strolling through the markets. Yesterday, for example, was a really lovely day at Eastern Market and my small stand. My customers got me thinking.

A short line of titles -- or even just one book -- has as much or more magnetism, I'm finding, as a large (Amazonian?) inventory. We are, after all, diverse and complicated creatures ourselves, and we each bring our own thoughts and interests to the table. When one person devotes time and attention to one book, she is, in some sense, making a larger and more diverse book inside her mind. The reader finds, in that moment, that she does not need a million titles -- just the one that is currently serving as a counterpoint to her own thoughts. Which is not to say that we don't need the million-title inventories as well. We do. It's just that million-title inventories do not necessarily create readers, and readers are, in my opinion, the people who create books.

Massive inventories -- in worldwide numbers that actually exceed the number of people on the planet -- too often become massively cluttered. They become random assortments of mostly damaged goods. That's why I have tried to create something different, in the book world. I hope you are enjoying it.