sshhh! This is a working library.

A Working Library is a blog about books—both an exploration of and an advocate for the reading experience.

The phrase “a working library” is usually taken to mean a collection of texts on a given subject, for the purpose of an academic or professional work. So, people speak of a working library on Proust, for example, or on psychotherapy. This working library differs in two key regards: there is no defined subject, and the purpose is so far opaque. This is intentional.

Of the many ideas at play here, the most significant is my belief that every book is connected to many other books, such that no book can or should be considered in isolation. When you read a book, you bring to it all the other books you’ve read (and been affected by), so your reading of it is necessarily unique. Furthermore, the act of reading predates the form of the book—and will most likely outlive it; as such, this site aims to explore the ways we read, and how they are changing.

Great book design is invisible; it gives form to the text such that you could imagine the words no other way. It makes a graceful entrance, and then disappears as you read. I have sought to achieve these same qualities with the design of this site, though I believe it has been an asymptotic approach. It is likely that I will experiment with the design as time goes by, such that neither the form nor the content of the site are immutable.

Reach me at mandy [at] aworkinglibrary [dot] com

Mandy Brown is Creative Director at Etsy, where she leads the design of a marketplace that values not only monetary wealth, but the wealth of a community. Prior to joining Etsy, she spent nearly a decade at W. W. Norton & Company, an independent and employee-owned publisher, where her work involved everything from book design to web design to writing about design.

She is also Contributing Editor for A List Apart and Editor and Co-Founder of A Book Apart.

The display face is Chaparral, designed by Carol Twombly. I'm using Cufón to display the headings. The text face is Matthew Carter’s Georgia.

A Working Library is powered by Expression Engine and hosted by Media Temple. I can happily recommend both. I used TextWrangler and Transmit to develop the templates.

I do most of my writing in Writeboards within my Backpack account; it’s an excellent way to keep track of ideas no matter where you are (though I still fancy scribbling on paper, as well).

Mint lets me know there are people out there actually listening.