At a small book store in NYC’s West Village, there are shelves labeled “Best Sellers” and “Sale,” but even a quick scan of the spines will reveal something: They’re all the same book. In fact, all 3,000 or so volumes stacked and shelved in Ed’s Martian Book store are the same.

In an attempt to promote his book, Martian Summer: Robot Arms, Cowboy Spacemen, and My 90 Days With the Phoenix Mars Mission, author Ed Kessler took over a small retail space for a few weeks. Outside the store stands a chalkboard carrying the explanation, “We have one book, but we’re not Scientologists.”

From the NY Times:

Mr. Kessler said he was inspired by restaurants like the Meatball Shop on the Lower East Side. “I was thinking about people that just sell one thing really well,” he said. Religions, he reasoned, ply a single book. Why can’t a bookstore? He calls himself the Monobookist.

Kessler tells the Times he’s sold around a “couple hundred” copies of his book since opening the store, which will likely close in mid-May.

A Book Store. That’s Right. Book, Singular. [NY Times]

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