I have two things to share with you today:

First, we’re starting a publishing company.

Second, I wrote a book about computing, out soon.

Let’s start with the book:

I’ve had a bunch of versions of the same conversation with curious friends and family over the years: folks are generally aware that computers “use binary”, but want to understand how they build up from there to all the things we recognize as modern computing today. This book answers that question.

Over ten chapters, it illustrates how we built each layer of computing out of the one before, and the models of thinking that got us there. It’s a short, technical book for curious, non-technical people.

It’s called Bootstrapping Computing, and I’d love for you to have a copy, share one with your most curious friend, and enjoy these wonder machines before us a little more with me. While it’s written for a non-technical audience, I’ve greatly enjoyed how it has helped me solidify my thinking about the fundamentals of computing; the ingredients for my everyday work.

Each book is archival quality and made by hand in Tennessee. The cover is a hard case wrapped in smoke grey book cloth, and the 112 pages are printed in full color using pigment-based ink on 80 lb warm white paper sewn with accented linen thread.

It comes out at the end of March, and you can preorder now.

Members of the Little Lab get a discount. Get a coupon code instantly after joining here, or sign in to your existing account.

Now, the publishing company I am starting with Sarah, my wife:

We care a great deal about books. But most of the books coming out today aren’t that good — in content and construction. Too many would be better as shorter books, but include lots of filler. And too many are just poorly made, and don’t stand the test of time.

Authors don’t have many great choices. Self-publishers are pushed to use print-on-demand services, which have mixed quality. Or when working with a publisher, authors have to give up lots of quality and control to fit that publisher’s idea of a good book, and leave all of the most interesting decisions about the construction of the book to what would be produced the cheapest.

We want to help build “the ninth path” for today’s authors and readers. Our company is building all of its own books in-house. They are archival quality, handmade using the best materials and methods. Folding, sewing, gluing, cutting, casing-in, pressing — it’s all done by hand. If well-cared-for, these books will last generations.

We’re starting by publishing some of our own works, and if things go well, we will move into publishing books by other authors.

And honestly, I’m most excited to be working with Sarah again. We do some of our best work together, and making books together has already been a dream come true. We hope you’ll pick up a copy of our first book, and sign up to hear about our new releases.

There’s nothing quite like a really nice, physical book that anchors your personal library, the kind that you leave on your desk for days or weeks after you’ve read it — having the words dutifully cared for and brought to you in a beautiful, tactile physical construction — it’s one of my favorite things in the world.

I’m looking forward to learning what it takes to make great books, and making them for you.

— Alexander