Mission Statement

When I was in middle school, we listened to albums. On cassettes, because I didn’t get a CD player until high school. Twenty or so minutes for Side A, twenty or so minutes for Side B. My theory was, Track #7, usually the first song of Side B, was more often than not the best song on any given album. “The One I Love,” Track #7. “Every Breath You Take,” Track #7. “Going to California,” Track #7.
My kids are now in middle school. They listen to individual songs, and, in some cases, snippets of individual songs — the soundtrack of Instagram memes. This is not better or worse than me listening to albums, any more than a 13-year-old in 1802 listening to full symphonies. It’s just the new reality in how music is being consumed.
In 1596, when Shakespeare was inventing words like countless and zany and bedazzled, plays were routinely three hours long and then some.
In 1996, when Baz Luhrmann made Romeo + Juliet, he cut out much of the vaunted dialogue, and gave us a Montague v. Capulet music video that clocked in at just over two hours.
Once a huge movie buff, I have no interest in watching movies. The running time is too long, and yet not long enough to really delve into the characters, is what I find. Also, on a practical level, I don’t have three free hours in the evening. Instead, I watch TV series. These are essentially really long movies, but offered in portions easier to consume.
For the same reasons, it is hard for me these days to tackle novels. As much as I love a good long novel, a 2666 or Ulysses or The Kindly Ones, it would take me so long to read such a work that I find myself daunted. I am a voracious reader, but I find that the older I get, the harder it is to finish a book. I am the king of reading the first 100–200 pages and then moving on. For a long time, I found this depressing. What’s wrong with me? I asked myself. Am I getting dumber?
Maybe the problem isn’t with me. Maybe the problem is with the format. Where is it written that novels must be 60,000 words or more? Why can’t books be the exact length that would make it more appealing for me to read them — from start to finish? If there is a long story to tell, why can’t the author publish that story in segments, like TV shows do?
“Four Sticks” is a song on Led Zeppelin IV (Track #6!). It also indicates the Four of Wands tarot, which means celebration.
Press is a celebration of brevity. We publish short books on a variety of topics: current affairs, memoir, fiction, and other work that defies category.
