Member-only story
On The Joys of the Obscure
Recently an email crossed my inbox that included a list of niche publishers. And while at first I thought some of the areas of interest were a bit of a giggle, the more I read, the more I found myself entranced. The truth is, I am so glad there are people and publications out there that focus on ideas and activities that are totally foreign to me — and, to be fair, to many people. I love their dedication, their commitment.
I love that there’s a press dedicated to high-quality woodworking books (Linden Publishing), one looking for pop culture including conspiracy theories, “strange music,” and cult film (Headpress), and another focusing on community-building and change-making (New Village Press).
No Starch Press wants books on alternative hacking and LEGO (a delightful juxtaposition), while Farrago only wants “fiction to make you smile.” And Hamilcar Publications is mostly looking for professional boxing and true crime, another interesting combination.
The point is that there are so many small communities out there whose passion goes over the heads and past the notice of most of us. In The Daughter of Time, Josephine Tey remarked that many lawbreakers were “quiet little domestic men, interested in family holidays and the children’s tonsils; or odd bachelors devoted to cage-birds, or second-hand bookshops, or complicated and infallible betting…
