So Many Books, 2nd Edition: Reading and Publishing in an Age of Abundance

A charming new edition of a much-loved book about books

“A playful celebrant of literary proliferation.”—New Yorker 

In So Many Books, Gabriel Zaid offers his observations on the literary condition: a highly original analysis of the predicament that readers, authors, publishers, booksellers, librarians, and teachers find themselves in today—when there are simply more books than any of us can contemplate.

Translated from the Spanish by Natasha Wimmer, this second edition includes a new introduction by Robin Sloan and delightful illustrations by Grant Silverstein. Robin Sloan writes in his introduction, “This slim volume is above all a book about vastness; about oceanic tides of language, about the feelings they produce, for writer and reader alike. About how words work in the marketplace, and how they fail to work, too. About books and the internet and culture itself.”

Gabriel Zaid's poetry, essays, social and cultural criticism, and business writings have been widely published throughout the Spanish-speaking world. He lives in Mexico City with the artist Basia Batorska, her paintings, three cats, and ten thousand books.

Robin Sloan is the author of the novels Moonbound, Sourdough, and Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore. He splits his time between the San Francisco Bay Area and the San Joaquin Valley of California.

Natasha Wimmer is an editor and a translator in New York City. Her translations include The Savage Detectives and 2666 by Roberto Bolaño and You Dreamed of Empires by Álvaro Enrigue.

Grant Silverstein specializes in etchings of a narrative character and in studies of figures, landscapes, and animals. He has illustrated several previous Paul Dry Books titles including Girlatee and The Battle Between the Frogs and the Mice. Silverstein lives in rural Pennsylvania.