Proposal: Forecast Books

Summary

I’d like to curate and populate a “small footprint book display” or “book nook” at Forecast.

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Project Breakdown

1. The physical book display would consist of the following parts:
   • At minimum:
     1. A max of three used/vintage books with a thematic link that ties them together.
     2. Floor/wall/shelf space, anywhere in the shop
   • If desired:
     1. A clothing bay mod/attachment for displaying the books
     2. Book stands
2. The books’ thematic link would be an arbitrary selection/exploration/line of thinking from me, in collaboration with the forecast crew. It might involve forecast’s clothing/inventory, the current season, the news, or arbitrary topics I find interesting at the time.
3. I could write a small blurb about the books’ theme for a newsletter or editorial or placard in the shop, or leave it mysterious.
4. Books would need to be priced

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Scope + Cost

1. Budget for a maximum of 3 used/vintage books:
   • 30–50$ a month, a quarter, a season, etc.
2. Budget (Time or Money) to set up a small nook in the store:
   • This could cost 0$ if we use existing shelves, the floor, or the wall
   • This might cost more depending on how we want to build a book shelf. Using custom hardware to set up an angled bay shelf might cost around ~40$ for the price of a wood board that matches the rest of the store and magnets/hardware to attach the board to the metal bay frame
3. Cost of time spent on this project:
   • I’m not interested in getting paid to do this work, cost of books is enough

As a “test run”, I am happy to pay out of pocket to purchase an initial set of books to displace and price at forecast. This way we could trial the idea and see if it makes sense without incurring a cost on forecast.

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Timeline

1. If we decide we want to work on this and specify a starting period, I could find book inventory in 1–2 days
2. Once books are obtained, I could set up a temporary book nook in an afternoon with the help of the forecast crew, and price the books accordingly
3. If editorial/blurbs about the books are desired, it might take me anywhere from 1–4 days to write something good, depending on the length needed
4. In total, if we decide to work on a book nook, it would take a week maximum to get everything set up.

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Optional Background, or Why I Care

Before Learning Gardens existed, Lukas and I had spent months talking about what it would mean to start up an “unstructured space” for learning about whatever you wanted.

Not known to many folks, I was actually deeply inspired to start LG thanks to encountering a book store that basically changed my artistic/intellectual life: Farewell Books in Austin, TX.

Farewell was meaningful to me because it combined the attraction of a simple book store with a very high degree of aesthetic sensibility and with a very secific point of view on what made for good or interesting reading. While it was a small store, it was the book store I’d attribute to me getting actually interested in art and philosophy and poetry. The staff was fun to talk to, they were weird, and they always had a highly specific (sometimes alienating) idea behind the books they’d keep on their shelves.

The space of the store was intermingled with a vintage clothing store called Las Cruxes that shared the space. The quality of books intermingling with clothing, perfumes, music, and art is hard to describe, but it imparted a life beyond the book’s covers that spoke deeply to me. These two stores would often host evening events like drawing classes, dance lessons, figure painting, readings, and other similar activities.

As I’ve been seeing forecast come to life and manifest itself physically, I’d been reminded of the joy I had exploring a space and having it change me + change the way I think about the world.

I’m more or less basically interested in facilitating similar moments of self-discovery in other people, and the intermingling of books and clothing and beautiful objects might be a fun way to do that.