Our Green Festival Booth Sunday

Our booth was mobbed for a couple of hours on Saturday and then Sunday.I took this shot during a lull. We sold tons of books, and probably more importantly, gave out 400 Builders of the Pacific Coastt posters as well as about 1200 of our (small, 4-color) catalogs. Personal word-of-mouth publicity with ink on paper (posters, catalogs) in the electronic age.

Dozens of people came up and thanked me for the books over the years. Wow! The 60-year-olds invariably picked up Shelter, said they had a beat-up old copy, and reminisced about the ’60s; the 40-year-olds said, “My Dad had this book, and I used to look through it…” The 20-30-year olds had just discovered either Home Work or Shelter, and were excited to see such things going on in the world. It seems like we’re rapidly rebuilding a network of builders, gardeners, and homemakers. (We had such a network in the Whole Earth Catalog days, but it dissipated.) The feedback is wonderful. These people understand the books.

About Lloyd Kahn

Lloyd Kahn started building his own home in the early '60s and went on to publish books showing homeowners how they could build their own homes with their own hands. He got his start in publishing by working as the shelter editor of the Whole Earth Catalog with Stewart Brand in the late '60s. He has since authored six highly-graphic books on homemade building, all of which are interrelated. The books, "The Shelter Library Of Building Books," include Shelter, Shelter II (1978), Home Work (2004), Builders of the Pacific Coast (2008), Tiny Homes (2012), and Tiny Homes on the Move (2014). Lloyd operates from Northern California studio built of recycled lumber, set in the midst of a vegetable garden, and hooked into the world via five Mac computers. You can check out videos (one with over 450,000 views) on Lloyd by doing a search on YouTube:

3 Responses to Our Green Festival Booth Sunday

  1. Yeah! Lloyd. Of course we all love your work.
    It( building, gardening, music, sharing, creating) seems to be the reason for all of us to be on this planet at this time eh? I carted all of my Lloyd books down here to Florida for the winter and hope to start scavenging for materiels to build by fisrt project of my own. Thanks again for your amazingly inspiring books and blog. Annie B.
    P.S. How do I get one of those catalogues?
    annie.siemer@gmail.com
    anniebsiemer.blogspot.com

  2. I bought your Home Work a couple of years ago and finally bought Builders of the Pacific Coast two weeks ago. I couldn't be happier with them, and everyone I show wants a copy of their own. They have been a daily source of inspiration, particularly now that I just bought my own 33 acre farm in West Virginia on which to build something off-the-grid of my own. Big thanks, and I hope to be one day sending you pics of my shelter.

  3. Hi Lloyd,

    I want to go to this show! I'm a loooong time fan of your Shelter books – have your 1973 edition still. Sustainable small-house building, imaginary islands and painting the ocean are my worlds. I'll get your newer books soon, since, at 64, I'm ready to build one more house, as soon as I find the right neighborhood.
    Lee Mothes

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