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Too many books?

Design Observer has an interesting essay by Alice Twemlow of the School of Visual Arts in New York contemplating the sheer abundance of books now being produced.

According to the Mexican critic Gabriel Zaid, writing in So Many Books: Reading and Publishing in an Age of Abundance, the human race publishes a book every 30 seconds. If current trends continue, by 2052 the number of people writing and publishing a book in a given year will exceed the number of people who will read one.

For those who wish to write and publish books, this opening may be off-putting or even day-ruining, but take heart: Both Zaid and Twemlow move past this to consider the beauty of books. Twemlow visits the Artists Space gallery in New York, where 5,300 books and magazines from 360 independent publishing houses are on display. Even  surveying that wealth of books devoted only to the subject of contemporary art, Twemlow is still able to suggest reasons why people still want to produce, read, and own books.  Whew!

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