NYC Bookstore Sells Just One Book

At Ed's Martian Book in New York City, you can buy one book and only one book. That book is Martian Summer: Robot Arms, Cowboy Spacemen, and My 90 Days With the Phoenix Mars Mission, about 3,000 copies of which are propped up in the front window and around the store, even underneath signs that say "sale" or "best sellers." The book, by Andrew Kessler, is about NASA's 2008 Phoenix Mars Lander mission. And the store is, at least partly, a marketing gimmick.

Kessler, who wrote the book and runs the store, is a creative director at an advertising agency—and his store has certainly gotten him some attention. But it's also a statement, delivered at a time when e-readers appear to be replacing traditional books. The store "makes books feel like an art installation,” Kessler tells the New York Times. “We should care about them.” Passers-by can get confused, however—and sometimes even "pretty intense"—prompting Kessler to put a sign up outside: “We have one book, but we’re not Scientologists.” (More book stories.)