iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Brad Johnson @ahablives.bsky.social · 21h

I mean, the downside is we have to have a counselor on site to debrief sobbing people as they leave. But, hey! In it for the love of the game!

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Brad Johnson @ahablives.bsky.social · 21h

In the broader scheme of things, I don't doubt this to be true. Which only reinforces how strange our store manages to be. I just looked at 45 of our bestselling 100 adult titles (not including events or bulk orders) are nonfiction. If we included events, it would be an even 50/50 split.

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Brad Johnson @ahablives.bsky.social · 22h

If I can actually get it done, our holiday catalog this year will be exceedingly fucking cool.

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Brad Johnson @ahablives.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

Anne Carson’s essay about the Rosalia concert surely sealed the deal on her Nobel win.

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Brad Johnson @ahablives.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

I bet the 10th person visited EBB.

News
Nine in 10 bookshop visitors say browsing lifts their mood, YouGov survey finds

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Brad Johnson @ahablives.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Vollmann, just to see if it juices sales for his new 3000+ page novel.

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Brad Johnson @ahablives.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

John Hinkel Park is a fucking amazing spot for a book event.

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Brad Johnson @ahablives.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Saw a seemingly well-intentioned IG post the other day, shared by a good many, talking about indie bookstores. One of the points in their favor, it claimed, was that they invited people to come in and argue with booksellers. Ahem … how about fuck no?

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Brad Johnson @ahablives.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

The twists and turns of this short email.

Rare Book Auctions
Hey Brad, I noticed you guys have a cool collection of kids' books on your site, including The Very Busy Spider. Brings back some
memories. Just curious if you ever need a line of credit or some capital for more inventory or new equipment?

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Brad Johnson @ahablives.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

I'm also fundamentally allergic to having multiple copies of a book spined out.

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Brad Johnson @ahablives.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

The positive of that is that we have a lot of stuff, apparently. The downside is that it probably can be overwhelming if you're there for a quick browse.

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Brad Johnson @ahablives.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Every year the American Booksellers Association does a financial survey of stores. The # of responses are inadequate to draw definitive opinions, but there are some v. funny ones from time to time. E.g., EBB apparently stocks DOUBLE (9) the # of titles p/ selling sq. foot than our peers (4.5).

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Brad Johnson @ahablives.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Kidding of course: our business section is mostly about labor and logistics.

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Brad Johnson @ahablives.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Customer asked if we had a horror section, so I showed them our business section. Ba dum dum …

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Brad Johnson @ahablives.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Never underestimate an electorate’s love for corruption, I guess.

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Brad Johnson @ahablives.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Ideology does not exist … ever.

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Brad Johnson @ahablives.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Things have never been entwined …. Ever.

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Brad Johnson @ahablives.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

They confuse debate for conversation, and make it their personality.

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Brad Johnson @ahablives.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

& as such, it’s always a mixture of sincerity and duplicity, true believers and charlatans. & always abuse.

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Brad Johnson @ahablives.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Been posting & deleting things here, because none quite stick the landing enough even for this site. But maybe the germ of a thought, as repetitive as it is, is enough: the formative philosophy, informing (from ethics to ontology) the core of the modern western economy (AI development) is cultic.

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Reposted by Brad Johnson

Bee @beegabberel.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

oh hell yeah its a good podcast

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Brad Johnson @ahablives.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

I’ve mostly just hear “obviously we have to keep negotiating with the terrorists.”

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Brad Johnson @ahablives.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

This arrives at the store next week, and though I've yet actually to see it ... I'm confident as all get out it's going to be perfect for the nerd in your life, which may in fact be you. ebbooksellers.com/item/6CvPe_C...

ebbooksellers.com

Research by Peter N Miller | East Bay Booksellers

A short, bold, and timely history and defense of research in the humanities and sciences and its incalculable importanceIf there were a single tool that could cure disease, improve the quality of huma...

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Brad Johnson @ahablives.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

I may have some thoughts to share soonish.

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Brad Johnson @ahablives.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

I've heard this. People like to think of supply chains as obvious & straightforward, when really they're usually more coiled and jumbled up like a headphone cord in your bag. This seems another instance of that.

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Brad Johnson @ahablives.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

I don't have much in the way of insight ... but mine is the weekly grunt work of loading my car with paper and boxes for the drop-off at the recycling center in Berkeley, my home away from home.

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Brad Johnson @ahablives.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

We'll devote a special episode to cardboard.

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Brad Johnson @ahablives.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

It’s true! We talk conflagrations, curious decision-making & chance. Lots of shout outs to friends and neighbors throughout, which may yet lead to future conversations.

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Brad Johnson @ahablives.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

In an ideal world, this would invite people to expand their reading worlds even further by choosing something else. There’s always something else as (or more) worthy than what you were actually looking for. If life teaches you anything though: ours is not an ideal world.

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Brad Johnson @ahablives.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

These are my days now. If somebody knows of a nice class action against them attempting to charge for tariff-exempt goods, I'm all aboard!

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Brad Johnson @ahablives.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Another day, another disputed probably fraudulent FedEx tariff.

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Brad Johnson @ahablives.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Walked through the largely rebuilt shell of the old store. No discussion of lease terms, etc. So don’t go spreading fake news. But … it did rev the buildout engine I didn’t know I had until doing so at this present place.

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Brad Johnson @ahablives.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

This is so good. Anyone with any proximity to cults and/or fundamentalism recognize AI culture for what it is.

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Brad Johnson @ahablives.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

At a time where you can only & repeatedly wonder “Why?!” we figured, “Why not.”

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Brad Johnson @ahablives.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

"I'm going to sit this one out, and sell something else instead" is a liberating email to write.

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Brad Johnson @ahablives.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

I'm constitutionally ill-suited to "chase backorders" for a title purportedly so hot that major publishers choose to not print enough.

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Brad Johnson @ahablives.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Bucket list achieved tonight: I successfully (if accidentally) crashed a bookseller dinner for a bestselling author tonight. No matter what you lot think of me, she said I was charming enough to stay.

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Reposted by Brad Johnson

Katherine Alejandra Cross @quinnae.com · 27/09/2026

You don't have an inalienable right to be an antisocial dipshit because you're doomscrolling all day and it makes you feel terrible. There are no qualifiers to this. You are not released from the obligation to try to be decent just because Elon Musk is lighting the world on fire.

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Brad Johnson @ahablives.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

"Are you Diesel?" "You're nine years and a fire late, bro."

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Brad Johnson @ahablives.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

I have a draft in Bluesky that just says “I love telling customers”.

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Brad Johnson @ahablives.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Multiple strands of philosophy have long treated lived experience, human and otherwise, as abstractions. This is great so far as it goes — which ideally means the page and/or thought experiment, not foundational truth.

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Brad Johnson @ahablives.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

This is in no way an original thought. But goddamn, sometimes it just strikes you in new ways and moments.

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Brad Johnson @ahablives.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

The bait & switch of late-capitalist technology is a sneaky thing. Nearly everything it's actually offered -- and then compelled us to take -- has diminished the actual value & sustainability of what was offered.

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Brad Johnson @ahablives.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

One hour of sleep last night is really catching up with me right about now.

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