"A bookseller is the being who is most aware of the futility of a book, and of its importance."-Hector Yanover

Like most of our cultural institutions and workers, bookshops and booksellers have worked hard in the last few years to respond to political and social issues in our society. They've formed committees and hosted panels, held training sessions and had difficult conversations in both their private and professional lives. Yet books by White supremacists, fascists, misogynists, and other dangerous ideologues are bought and sold in independent bookshops across North America every day. What are the economic, social, and moral consequences of stocking and selling these titles? In The Least We Can Do, Josh Cook, bookseller at Porter Square Books in Cambridge, Massachusetts, takes up these questions and more, embarking on an urgent and insightful reckoning with critical issues around freedom of expression, public discourse, industry ethics, and moral culpability.

The first in a new series of pamphlets to be published by booksellers, for booksellers and those invested in bookstores and book culture, The Least We Can Do is a call to action and the beginning of an essential conversation.

• Print run: 5,000
• Co-op available
• North American TV & radio campaign: NPR Fresh Air, Weekend Edition, All Things Considered
• National print campaign: Booklist, Foreword, Kirkus, Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, Shelf Awareness; Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Minneapolis Star Tribune, New Yorker, New York Times, New York Times Book Review, San Francisco Chronicle, Seattle Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post; The Atlantic, The Believer, Bookforum, Elle, Glamour, Harper's, Los Angeles Review of Books, Cosmopolitan, Marie Clare, Ms., O Magazine, Time, Vogue
• Online and social media campaign: pitch reviews and interviews to Book Riot, Brooklyn Rail, Bustle, Electric Literature, Flavorwire, Jezebel, Lit Hub, New Yorker Book Bench, New York Review of Books, NPR.org, NPR Books, Quarterly Conversation, Slate, Salon, Vol. 1 Brooklyn. Giveaways through Edelweiss, Facebook, Goodreads, Twitter, Instagram.

About the Author
Josh Cook is a bookseller at Porter Square Books in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he has worked since 2004. He is also author of the critically acclaimed postmodern detective novel An Exaggerated Murder and his fiction, criticism, and poetry have appeared in numerous leading literary publications. He grew up in Lewiston, Maine and lives in Somerville, Massachusetts.



Book Information
ISBN 9781771964654
Author Josh Cook
Page Count 48
Imprint Biblioasis
Publisher Biblioasis