To those receiving this for the first time: it's an irregularly written newsletter describing what's going on with Shelter Publications and what I run across out in the world. I apologize for the length of this: blah blah blah...

We've just about finished several months of work on this, our most popular book (3-1/2 million copies, 23 languages). It's set for December pub date. Core of book same, but these significant changes:

What's made this book so popular world-wide? Clear, simple drawings, 1-page stretching routines (to photocopy), and plain (non-PhD) language. Bob and Jean Anderson have connected with people ever since they put together their 1st homemade version of this book in the mid-'70s.

You may have read recent articles that "static stretching" is not a good way for athletes to prepare for competition. See article I wrote on it at: http://bit.ly/42zDOt

2. The Gardners' and Poultry Keepers Guide and Illustrated Catalogue of Goods Manufactured and Supplied by W. Cooper, circa 1903

I found this little (5" x 7") gem in a small London bookstore in 1974 and have wanted to reproduce it ever since. The Cooper company manufactured prefabricated greenhouses, sheds, shacks, stables, kiosks, and rustic furniture in London around the turn of the (20th) century. These buildings were shipped all over the British Isles, and to British colonies worldwide. Not only is this catalogue a charming picture of turn-of-the-century country life in England, but the drawings - of greenhouses, chicken coops, barns and small buildings (with corrugated metal roofing and siding, very much in vogue these days) - were still relevant 100 years later. Here is a source of ideas for builders, architects, and homeowners - perhaps even more relevant in these days of rapidly depleting resources.

    

We're printing only 1500 copies (high quality soft cover, linen finish, gold foil-stamped), but I think this could be a hit, with all that's going on with gardening, building simply, & saving resources these days.

That's the subject matter of our next major building book, not the title (which will evolve as we put it together). There are a slew of books on the subject, more coming out soon, but ours will have our signature approach and design. The time is right. Scaling back. 100-500 square ft. houses. Add on later. No bank or mortgage. It CAN still be done, friends. Of course land was cheaper in '60s-'70s, as were materials; codes were less Draconian, but if you get far enough away from cities, or put your house on wheels or in the water, you can create shelter and retain your freedom. I haven't had a mortgage for the last 40 years, not being tied to a bank or landlord, no monthly obligation.

We already have tons of great stuff for this book. We'll start putting it together in October. I can't wait - to be working on something so timely, and fascinating. Simplify. Get rid of stuff. Pare down to essentials in getting started.

Jason Sussberg, a documentary film graduate student at Stanford, contacted me after seeing my Builders of the Pacific Coast slide show at Bookshop Santa Cruz in April. Jason emailed he wanted to do a piece on "...idea of "home....I am curious about how the new American landscape is going to be shaped after the financial crisis; how people are going to view homes as a place to live, not as an investment to live off of. I am especially interested in your latest project that you eluded to last night about small homes being something you create, without necessarily needing banks. My film is going to be a poetic and philosophical project, not necessarily journalistic."

Jason and friends, as an exercise in shooting real film (as opposed to digital), ended up with a 6-minute movie on me and Lesley and our home, and by golly, they got it right. Which hasn't always happened in my encounters with the media. They even got me skateboarding. Here it is: http://jasonsussberg.com/SHELTER.mov

Our author Jeff Galloway was quoted extensively in a New York Times article on running marathons with his walk/run technique. He's all over the place these days, directing races, running 6 marathons a year (at age 64), doing clinics. At any one time there may be 15,000 people following his revolutionary walk/run training techniques.

"Jeff Galloway has put a whole new segment of people into running shorts."

-Atlanta Journal-Constitution, June 28, 2009

To see the NY Times article of June 1, 2009, click here: http://bit.ly/dZ4CB

Jeff's two books (actually the, ahem, best running books in the world):

Galloway's Book on Running (over 600,000 sold)

Marathon: You Can Do It! (105,000 sold)

Right now, at least, we're not singin the blues. Our sales are somewhat up right now.

These are other ways I am communicating these days, in addition to real books. I started blogging - jeez! - almost 4 years ago. Took me years, but now I love it. I skipped Facebook and MySpace, but Twitter timing was perfect. Tweets are the way I think! I've been tweeting (in my head) my whole life. Too much to get into books or even a blog. But tweets...plus the brevity of them forces tight writing, a good exercise any time. "Haikus of our times," per British architect Richard Harris.

I try to find time to tweet 4-5 days a week. Not weekends. Fascinating process. I'm actually in communications heaven right now. I don't have a business model (marketing is our weak point) for all the posts and tweets, but it seems natural to be doing. I hope it drives some book sales.

Usually you can get to it by just typing in lloydkahn in yr. browser window.

Or, to click on it now: http://lloydkahn.com

http://twitter.com/lloydkahn

Ordered 3GS yesterday.

I had such a great 6 days in New York, I love the place. Walked around the Javits center for 3 days, had random and highly productive encounters. Books are not f***ing dead! Our books with 1000 photos work best held in hand. TV didn't eliminate radio. Computers didn't eliminate TV. There'll always be futurist cheerleaders, hustling the new, denigrating the old. (Space colonies, my ass!) It's all in picking the appropriate technology. Many instances these days of technology in search of an application.

My blog postings from New York late May: * Small Town Hick Once Again Dazzled By New York City * Hot Party for New Book, New York In the '70s * Antibalas at Publishers Group West Party * Motorcycle on 30th Street Made by Orange County Choppers *  Alley Near Washington Square * Midtown Manhattan Flower Store:  See: http://lloydkahn-ongoing.blogspot.com/2009_05_01_archive.html

Blog postings from New York early June: Warm Summer Night in Washington Square * Baby Soda Jazz Band - Muskrat Ramble at Washington Square Park. See: http://lloydkahn-ongoing.blogspot.com/2009_06_01_archive.html

It was announced at the BEA that our book was named "Architecture Book of the Year" by ForeWord magazine. (It's got a 5% rate of returns in its first 10 months.)

     

Photo on left: L-R, Billy Cummings &, me, July 3, 2009. Photo on right: Billy with shingling hatchet, July 1. This is just outside our production studio, where I'm writing this now.

38 years ago, when I first moved to this small town, Billy was a surfer who wanted to learn to build, and he started working with me. First a 10 x 12' shed, next he helped me frame the roof for this 30' tall 3-story hexagonal tower. In the intervening years, Billy's become a skilled carpenter.

The cedar shakes I put on the roof almost 40 years ago finally needed replacing. My friend Bruno Atkey, of Vancouver Island, British Columbia (see pp. 74-91 of Builders of the Pacific Coast*), offered to make me hand-split cedar shakes and I jumped at the chance. These are made from old-growth cedar driftwood as well as logs left felled in the woods. They're split both sides (commercial shakes are sawn on one side) and gorgeous. I just described it to Bruno's friend Godfrey, and he wrote,

"Tower of Powa mon!"

Right now, Billy's about 2/3 through with the job. We're going to put a copper cap at the top, with a small crystal for sunlight sparkle and good vibes.

Here is a unique and quite wonderful illustrated piece on Thomas Jefferson and friends by illustrator Maira Kalman. http://kalman.blogs.nytimes.com/ (Sent us by Fritzi Drosten)

"He studied Hessian flies and Voltaire and maps of Africa and the Koran and Shakespeare. In the study were his telescopes and polygraph copying machine and revolving bookstand in books. he knew Greek, Latin, French, Spanish, and Italian. When he read Spinoza, he read him in Latin. When he read Euripides, he read him in Greek.

"I'm a full grown natural man..."

Look at how Robbie Robertson's face comes in and out of shadow and light. To be backing Muddy, it doesn't get any better. Robby's in heaven when Muddy sings:The line I shoot/I'll never miss/When I make love to a girl/She can't resist & http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwd1LsJyhis

        

Poppies (bees at work on purple one) in our garden

Native California snail in my office window. You find the occasional shell out in the hills. V. different from garden snails, (which came from Europe). Note the elegant spiral.

I've started running, after a 2-year hiatus. Boy, it feels good, not only to run, but to explore the hills again. Went 6 mi. with the boys last night, seemed like a long way...

Lesley and I are leaving mid-September for Europe. We'll travel around in England and Ireland for 3-4 weeks, then I'll head for the Frankfurt Book Fair (where I have a lot of business to conduct thanks to the new edition of Stretching), then I'll take a night train and meet Lesley in Paris.

Stadium Arcadium, Red Hot Chili Peppers. I'm late in discovering a lot of musicians.

More Best Of, Leonard Cohen. My album of the year. So rich!

-Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, 1815.

Pura vida,