Merchandise Spotlight: Books

Highly Personal New Breed

I guess the main thrill of books goes back to the Clarence Day quotation: “still telling men’s hearts, of the hearts of men centuries dead.” Books are highly personal items. And while the Edward Hamilton/Amazon.com model depersonalizes them and makes them commodities, an extraordinary new book catalog model emerged in the 1980s, whereby the marketers sell only those products they truly love. They convey that love in a personal way.