Andrew Kessler is the author of Martian Summer: Robot Arms, Cowboy Spacemen, and My 90 Days With Phoenix Mars Mission. To counter the cruel, iPad-eat-Kindle world that we live in, he's opened up a bookstore in the West Village that only sells his book. No biscotti. No booze. No Josh Groban CDs. Neat! Mind if we use the bathroom?
Kessler tells City Room that although (spoiler alert!) he's "not a very good businessperson," the pop-up store "makes books feel like an art installation" and that he's sold "a couple hundred" of the hardbacks at $27.95 apiece. He also calls himself a "monobookist."
After seeing the Lower East Side's Meatball Shop in action, Kessler "was thinking about people that just sell one thing really well," said the shopkeep who does not sell risotto, chianti, ice cream sandwiches, salads, polenta, broccoli or beer, but just a single book. Perhaps Kessler's eye was wandering across Stanton street, where the intimidatingly sterile Bisous, Ciao Macaron shop sells…macarons. Fifteen types of macarons.
