Thursday, February 12, 2004
The Book as Industrial Artifact
Former Tattered Cover bookseller Brian Wells has a post on his blog about touring a large publisher warehouse in Maryland a few years ago. He doesn't say who it is in the story, but it is arguably the largest US publisher.
My favorite quotes...
on being a bookseller:
"I remember it fondly, though without money at all. I like to say that I started in the non-profit world by working in a bookstore first. Booksellers know the truth of this."
on the warehouse:
"I learned that over 900 people work at this facility. They handle the books, literally, that we read in our solitude. That we imagine springing out of some Prospero's mind - equally solitary save for his muse, his Arial. But the reality is this: hundreds of thousands of people work in a business long said to verge on collapse. People who study literature closely sometimes loose sight of an important aspect: book as industrial artifact. Yes the tome in your hand represents an individual's or groups creative process(es). It represents an editor's temperament and fickle tastes. It also represents the physical labor of thousands of individuals doing some pretty unromantic work. "
Here's the whole story:
Compendia Mobile blog
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My favorite quotes...
on being a bookseller:
"I remember it fondly, though without money at all. I like to say that I started in the non-profit world by working in a bookstore first. Booksellers know the truth of this."
on the warehouse:
"I learned that over 900 people work at this facility. They handle the books, literally, that we read in our solitude. That we imagine springing out of some Prospero's mind - equally solitary save for his muse, his Arial. But the reality is this: hundreds of thousands of people work in a business long said to verge on collapse. People who study literature closely sometimes loose sight of an important aspect: book as industrial artifact. Yes the tome in your hand represents an individual's or groups creative process(es). It represents an editor's temperament and fickle tastes. It also represents the physical labor of thousands of individuals doing some pretty unromantic work. "
Here's the whole story:
Compendia Mobile blog
