books printed while you wait

Killing a bit of time before my trip to the Architectural Association. I decided to go to Blackwell’s bookshop on Charing Cross beforehand to look at their print-on-demand machine.

You can’t miss it. It’s a big machine in a booth that looks like it belongs in Kinko’s rather than Blackwell’s.

This will probably be a good thing someday, but so far the process is a bit less than streamlined.

Walked up to the booth. Tattooed young hipster was manning the computer, and was one of those people who refuses to look at you while speaking to you; pretended to be monitoring important information on the screen, but I could see there was nothing of the sort.

I told him I was trying to pick up a book that was advertised as being at Blackwell’s, which I assumed meant at the print-on-demand area. He said “no, it wouldn’t be here.” I said “I think it would be. It’s a print-on-demand book.”

He asked me the title, then repeated “Prince of Networks” several times allowed. Followed by a quizzical intonation of my name, without any idea of who I was, and finally: “re.press? Never heard of them.”

I explained who re.press is, but he was doing his hipster thing and looking at the screen and ignoring me. He then clicked his tongue in his mouth several times and said there have been many problems downloading books today, and there is also “another gentleman waiting.”

I told him no problem, since I will not be returning until 3 PM. For some reason that woke him up. He suddenly became happy and helpful, turned to face me for the first time, and was entirely at my service.

Not sure what sense to make of all that, unless he was simply having a bad morning with computer glitches and was using cold body language to try to fend off further orders. But by the end he was OK, and I will be able to see what the book looks like when fabricated on the spot by a machine.