Publishing Lives: Interviews with Independent Book Publishers in the Pacific Northwest and British Columbia

I enjoyed reading Jerry Gold's lively book of interviews. It is hard to understand how anybody could be so silly as to start a small press. What impressed me however was to see the range and depth and the money that can be made by publishing cook books, especially. You get a good cross-section of the intellectual and non-intellectual milieu of the northwest -- with all its paranoia, its utopianism, its peculiar optimism. I especially liked the interviews with Jean-Louis Brindamour, David Brewster, Dan Levant, and some of the older figures, whose interviews span decades, and give a sense of whole lives. Some of the younger people interviewed, especially if they grew up exclusively in the northwest, don't have as much to say. The book seems especially good from the viewpoint of understanding what makes publishers tick, psychologically. I liked the book and I'd personally rate it a ten, but I think the average book buyer might be a bit baffled by the reason for its existence. I see it as a very good oral history of a very interesting profession.