Francisco Goldman’s Say Her Name

Francisco Goldman is an unlikely Hades.

Other than the cartoonish arch of his black eyebrows and his swarthy overall appearance, he is more Pan than underworld overlord. He is quick to laugh and does so with abandon; he has an infectious appreciation for beauty and eccentricity, is prone to exuberance, flights of fancy.

Why Shop Indie?

“No one should shop at Green Apple out of charity or pity or noblesse oblige, but because you want what we’ve got. You mold the retail landscape with every purchase; vote wisely.”

A little love for Melville House covers

I make a point of encouraging my friends to get their books from me, to consider me their personal bookseller, and to send me e-mails, text messages, or smoke signals whenever they need a book. I like it. It’s still very personal, it’s reasonably reliable, and it really does strike me as a great marriage of modern convenience and old fashioned bookselling.

Mister K meets Mister M

Peter Mendelsund, one of the industry’s top designers (and, honestly, one of my favorites) explains the hideous choices he made when redesigning Kafka for Schocken. On the plus side, there’s the gorgeous typography by Julia Sysmäläine developed from Kafka’s own handwriting (!) and the brilliant Knopf/Arendt story for industry nerds. Enjoy.

Congratulations to Peter Cole

Gabriel Josipovici hailed Cole’s work as a “treasure trove, a labour of love and exceptional erudition, which will open up . . . a world of poetry and culture as rich as anything in human civilization”.