Where in the world are the book reports?

Warehouse cleanup, tracking numbers and the glamorous work of creativity

TLDR: I’ve ordered 500 books, but I’m not exactly sure where the are.

After printing small (and expensive) runs - 20 books here, 50 books there (I didn't want to get stuck with extra copies) of the book report, I finally figured out how to print at scale. Or at least relative scale. I bit the bullet and ordered 500 copies. Which means I also had to figure out where to store 500 copies and later how to sell 500 copies.

The Warehouse

My father-in-law kindly offered me a part of his garage and built these shelves the Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend. He spent the morning building the shelves; I spent the afternoon cleaning his garage. It worked out for everyone.

Cleaning out the garage involved such questions as "what to do with the blow-up kayak laying diagonally across half the floor"; it also involved taking up space without seeming like I was taking up too much space (maybe a metaphor to explore) and also how to prepare for another atmospheric river/earthquake/tsunami, which seems to be a regular occurrence where we live these days.

I kind of like figuring these problems out. It puts me in touch with the means of production. But also wouldn’t be nice if there was someone else around who was in charge of figuring all this stuff out? Or if this wasn't something that needed to be figured out at all? Is this what publishers are for?

Originally, I was hoping the books might arrive in time for Christmas, but increasingly, I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that they arrive before we leave for the holidays to the East coast. Otherwise, I'm going to have find a neighbor I feel comfortable asking to move 32 boxes of books into Glenn's garage. Throughout this entire process, I'm struck by how much the work of creativity - at least as it relates to this particular project - is really the work of logistics and also the work of asking other people for help. This project always ends up at community, at care.

The only thing I am certain of is that the books exist

The books were last seen in these pictures the printer sent me from his print shop and from his truck. I do have a FedEx tracking number, but it seems conceptual more than anything else...somewhere on a spectrum between aspirational and meaningless.

The books (I think) are currently in California, last tracked in Gardena on November 15. When they get here, I will let you know and try to sell one to you.