I wonder if they realized the wrench they were at that moment throwing into their own observation.

“The task is to cultivate an inventory where the books you choose get their immediate credibility for browsers because you chose them, not the other way around.”

I have the day off tomorrow, and I'm hoping to wrap up Alvaro Enrigue's forthcoming "Now I Surrender." I'm curious about the delay in translating this one -- was written after "Sudden Death" & before "You Dreamed of Empires."

Discursive resignation eventually has non-discursive consequences.

College student reminded me today that I’ve been selling her books since she was in elementary school

I wrote a check today, so I guess I can at least make a semi-formal announcement here: EBB is going to be a sponsor of @oaklandreviewofbooks.org. What that means for them & for us, who’s to say! But it should be interesting figuring out.

One thing I can say about Barbara Lee is she's gotten these Oakland parking meter readers out in force!! In the rain, even! They finally got me!

I love ranting about how shitty S&S is to unsuspecting customers who’ve just called in to check on the status of an order they’ve labelled as “shippable” for two weeks.

One of the perks of bookselling is you sometimes get invited to sell at very cool things.

listening to Patti Smith’s band sound check and it seems they’re just playing through all of Marquee Moon which is just delightful

K is visiting her family back in Belgium, and sending me sunrise updates.

I thought of this post and laughed while editing my ludicrously large holiday catalog tonight.

Something I realize more fully now that I’m in such a small space: I get overwhelmed by too many titles now. It’s become so cacophonous.

Sorry, everybody, but I’m-appointing myself to visit and sign off on your self-attestation. There will be Health Code-type grades to put in your window and everything. www.caliballiance.org/certified-in...

I’m as surprised by this as anyone, but I really don’t mind all these clips of “Justified” Instagram has decided to feed me.

What a night for Cade Cunningham: 46 points, despite missing 31(!) of his 45(!!) shots. And still also managed a triple double.

It’s helpful to remember that Democratic leadership are basically indistinguishable from Republicans in their personal-private life. It is decidedly in their personal-private interest to lose politically.

Hate to break it to you, buddy, but destroying the actually-existing Democratic Party IS an integral part of the bigger fight now.

Was thinking about what wisdom Townes van Zandt would have for us through these trying times, & figured it’d be one part whisky & the other part a long talking blues song.

I'm genuinely honored that I get to partner w/ the UC Berkeley library this week to help an internship program they have. Basically ... I get to chat with undergrads about the decision-making of choosing books. I have so few marketable skills, save for this.

My first thought when I saw photos of Chicago was, "Aww man, I want some snow!" Then I stepped outside into a pristine perfect Bay Area morning and thought ... nahhhhhh.

So dumb. There were fair arguments to be made that Dems shouldn’t allow a shutdown, but as soon as you commit to that you’d better be fucking committed — which given that this is the Democratic Party after was one huge reason not to allow it. What a waste.

European politics aren't by any stretch of the imagination *ideal*. In Belgium, they're barely functional. And yet, against all odds, they seems utopic compared to the US.

we talk too much about the male loneliness crisis and not enough about the male suckerfication crisis maxread.substack.com/p/prediction...

A new bookstore coming very soon to downtown S.F. apparently. sfstandard.com/2025/11/05/e...

A belief that billionaires+ shouldn't exist isn't jealousy. It's not even being a hater. It's the commonest of common sense.

It’s cults all the way down.

A game changing discovery yesterday: the pizza place down the street from the store has a “PB&J” happy hour special. Margherita pizza + beer + shot of Jamesons.

I'm obsessed with this stat: "with more than 4,000 degree-granting institutions and fewer than 130 university presses in the United States and Canada, this vital [publishing] infrastructure is directly supported by less than 3 percent of the institutions it benefits"

I totally get the utility of AI for technical and/or theoretical problems. But for the life of me, the spiel being sold about its use in everyday offices / industries sounds mostly like snakeoil to disguise job cuts. Sorry, my dude, it ain't email. It's not even Excel. (It manages to be worse.)

Life is much better when you fully convince yourself Ross Douthat doesn’t actually exist.

Just wrapped an event with @ssparks.bsky.social where we pitched books. My favorite review: “you were more charming than you often are.”

This month, we will be donating our profits from sales on Sundays to the Alameda County Community Food Bank. This nation’s present leadership, which we already knew to be venal, are committed to yet more vile acts against our most vulnerable neighbors.

Seems like a timely book! ebbooksellers.com/item/u60uZZa...

Not even 24 hrs later and Cheney is turning in his grave.

Zohran at the rally for trans youth on february 8 ❣️ he was polling single digits.

Haha. Thought I was reposting this from my account, not the store’s. Oh well!

God. And we’re stuck with celebrating a shitty but necessary vote-rigging prop in California

That Zohran seemingly so effortlessly bears the weight of so much symbolism and reality is really something special.

I don't believe in a heaven, but hope like hell there's a hell for people like Dick Cheney.

In case you’re worried about the synthetic text extruders becoming conscious and farming us Matrix-style: this is an excellent and very accessible piece on why those concerns are probably overblown. 👇

Most people hear "factory jobs" and think "1950s economic prosperity," which was only possible through strong unions. The GOP says "factory jobs" and means "1880s corporate dominance over the working class." Recognize the difference.

Because I am a glutton for some mild punishment, I spent a portion of my weekend flipping through Paul Kingsnorth's latest crank (thickly so) manifesto (albeit paper thin) of a book.

This lecture series is such a treasure.

My guiding principle w/ this thing throughout the years has been that selling x # of copies of books cataloged is far less important than the store identifying what its doing.

For example ...

I still can’t believe we traded cable tv for something as or more expensive and shittier.

Assuming this is true (it's not), killing women, children and men with mass extinction intent doesn't feel like a great solution.

Deep backlist / catalog MIT Press books may not necessarily pay the bills around here, but it’s not going to stop me from displaying them.

These monsters, ours now, and likely those long before, are so because they see this as a gauntlet-thrown challenge, in the only dumb manner they can conceive, and not the defining rhetorical riddle it was.