DIESEL's First Book Causes Much Reading, Little Weeping

DIESEL, A Bookstore, in Oakland, California, has been busy. Co-owners John Evans and Alison Reid recently opened a second DIESEL, in Malibu, which is about a 400-mile commute from the first DIESEL, and in September, they became publishers. DIESEL Books published its first title, Read 'Em and Weep: My Favorite Novels, Barry Gifford's musings on novels and short stories that, as he describes in the preface, "whetted [his] appetite to take bigger and bigger bites out of the world." Works chosen range from Lionel Davidson's The Rose of Tibet and Clair Bee's The Chip Hilton series to John Dos Passos' The USA Trilogy and Marcel Proust's A La Recherche Du Temps Perdu.

Gifford, a writer himself, is known for his novel Wild at Heart (Grove), on which David Lynch based the eponymous film, and more recently, The Phantom Father, named a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. He's also widely recognized for his work as editor and creator of Black Lizard, a publisher of noir crime novels, which was acquired by Vintage. He had long kept a list of novels that have heavily influenced him and was repeatedly urged to publish it by his students and friends. Gifford, a longtime friend of Evans and Reid, approached Evans with the idea that DIESEL publish the list, a series of short personal essays, some of which read like reviews and some of which limn his experiences at readings and meeting other authors.

In a July interview with BTW, Evans said that he was immediately interested in the Gifford project. "It's satisfying to publish a book by someone I respect and to publish a book that people will get a lot out of." He also noted that Read 'Em and Weep served another purpose dear to every bookseller's heart. "It inspires further reading," he said. "There are very few books that do that."

The book has been selling well at DIESEL and beyond. Evans originally intended to primarily sell the book at DIESEL, but other booksellers have ordered it for their stores. With such encouragement, Evans took a booth at the recent Northern California Independent Booksellers Association trade show, where he got to experience the industry from the publisher's side of the table. Ever a bookseller, Evans pointed out that Read 'Em and Weep provides a great opportunity for creating displays.

Read 'Em and Weep retails at $10. Booksellers who are interested in carrying the book should e-mail Evans at [email protected]. --Karen Schechner