What Stuff Like That Books is
Stuff Like That is a craft publishing venture that brings together text, image and the book as handmade object. The books are made up by hand, and use inkjet printing, woodcut, linocut, stencil, embossing and type.
StuffLikeThat has, as of late November 2023, moved to https://stufflikethatbooks.carrd.co
The imprint launched in June 2023 with a series of short stories, each with a handprinted cover illustration; two compilations; a new work by Anne Eggebert; and six Barely There At All books.
By working within the boundaries of the book as object, Stuff Like That abandons breadth of access in favour of intimacy of engagement. So none of these texts will be available online. You have to buy them, Paypal is fine, and I'll post. Hit the button above to email me, and we'll get it going.
Stuff Like That books is happy to discuss further publication opportunities, please get in touch.
Readers write:
"A South Woodford J G Ballard"
"These are gems, both the stories and the little books - the sewn editions are lovely objects"
"Observing the human condition and reporting back"
Julian Walker's short fiction is also published in Literally Stories and Mocking Owl Roost magazine.
Where to find us & how to buy
Studio 1
Valentines Mansion
25 and 26 November 2023
10.30 - 4
at the Open Studios and the "Our Victorian Christmas"
Valentines Mansion
Emerson Road, Ilford
London IG1 4XA
nearest tube - Gants Hill, Central Line
The short stories are £7 each stapled, and 3 for £18.
Or £8 each sewn, and 3 for £20.
Other books are priced individually
Contact me on julianwalker20@gmail.com
Sales can be arranged for posting, as economically as possible, using paypal or bank transfer.
Updates and new titles announced here and on facebook - Julian Walker
The Works
The short stories
The short stories are 1,200 to 2,500 words long, postcard sized, printed on Fabriano 120 gsm paper, with a heavier cover.
All with a handprinted woodcut or linocut cover illustration. Bound sewn or stapled.
John Lennon Is Not Dead (no 5, 11pp)
Three attempts to stop time and change the course of history have different results. It never happened.
Unscheduled stop (no 6, 10pp)
The man who talks to other people on the bus keeps his thoughts to himself. Well, up to a point.
Carelessness (no 7, 6pp)
The shadows of clouds, and what happens when you look up at tall buildings. Can you fall off the earth?
Prepositions (no 8, 12pp)
Dialectal differences within a family echo the stress of prescription drug dependency. Aren't families fun.
Another Part of the Forest (no 10, 16pp)
Three experiences of woodland: a place to escape from school, a site of historical comparison, and a place to not have sex.
So (no 13, 11pp)
A woman suffers dental injury, rejects her mother, and considers how two writers of the Arthurian legend use an introductory term.
Bigness (no 14, 15pp)
A young person looks at one of Gulliver’s adventures in light of her own feelings of isolation, which she is ok with.
Uncertainty (no 15, 15pp)
A mathematical sequence probably does not work when applied to romance, though it might be useful for reacting to climate crisis.
What Would You Do For Love? (no 16 - 16pp - £10)
How planned love goes wrong. So, so wrong.
The Daffodils (no 17, 10pp)
A woman relishes the distress of someone who had bullied her at work.
Half Past Two (no 18, 11pp)
The tense relationship between two sisters revolves around a pair of walking boots.
The Dog It Was (no 19, 15pp)
A road traffic accident involving a dog provides an unlikely scenario for love; far too unlikely in fact, but other things are going on, which deserve scrutiny.
The Voice of God (no 22, 15pp)
A home security device is mistaken for a celestial message. But then, it might actually be a celestial message.
Zoom (no 24, 24pp, sewn only)
Located in the post-Covid life of online meetings, loss of attention leads a participant down an imagined path, involving lost keys, a failing harbour, and the male gaze.
School Blown Away (no 25, 13pp)
A person misses out on experience twice, while trying to find their old school.
As the Crow Flies (no 26, 11pp)
Accidentally finding yourself appearing to be the thing you most dislike can cause problems. Especially if you are a crow.
The Wink (no 27, 15pp)
A teacher of creative writing is forced to examine the relationship between writing and experiencing, when challenged by a student.
Guaranteed Waterproof (no 28, 20pp, sewn only)
Interpretations of the past are mostly about the present, and the Stone Age may have been much like the Anthropocene.
The Typo (no 29, 14pp)
How should one approach the death of an ex-partner? Shave? A good place to start.
How to Peel an Egg (no 31, 15pp)
There may be different ways of approaching essential life skills, whether it be peeling an egg or knowing what to say at a funeral.
Boardgame (no 32, 13pp)
The eternal struggle between good and evil is sort of worked out over a bottle of wine.
Plein Air (no 33, 15pp)
Three people, over a period of 200 years, get frustrated by the space they want to occupy and look at.
Double Act (no 34, 13pp)
1950s radio comedy resurfaces at a funeral. Aren't families fun.
Two Down at Half-time (no 35, 17pp, sewn only)
A mother is vaguely involved with football, rather against her will. What is it with football?
Paradise Lost (no 36,17pp, sewn only)
A young graphic artist feels uncomfortable visiting a squat. Should she take a risk which might lead to her first breakthrough?
Thirst (no 38, 18pp, sewn only)
Observations of a funeral party in a pub, and the conversation between two crabs at the end of the world in H G Wells’ Time Machine. Yes, talking animals.
Heaven (no 39, 12pp)
Young Niamh and her boyfriend meet in an abandoned place, presided over by two entities, a brick and a religious festival, that seem to be disappearing.
Ant Monster (no 41, 20pp, sewn only)
Marjory's questions about whether animals have souls develop into fears for how her family treats insects, and she gets into an unholy argument.
The Waves (no 42 available soon)
Marjory struggles with the names she acquires over her life, and the blows that fate, and the writer, deal her. Ultimately she takes the matter into her own hands.
Paper-thin (no 43 - £10)
By Anne Eggebert
Where our sense of self resides is determined by our memories and imagined future potential. Where is the ‘me’ when both are lost?
Shit Day (no 44, 14pp)
Things go from bad to worse; much, much worse. The prognosis for the future isn't too good either.
Gable End (no 45, 16pp)
Arthur's attempts to educate through architecture provoke encouragement from two admirers, a century apart. We wish him well.
Oxbow Lake (no 46, 16pp)
Some things we just get wrong, from early on. And we just keep getting them wrong, again and again.
Man on a Pole (no 47, 16pp)
Social occasions can be fun, especially when anybody can be arsed to show any interest in you. Not at all autobiographical, dear me no.
These People (no 48, 32pp)
Anita and Michael feel out of place at a university reunion party, where class and heritage differences are now thrown into sharp relief. Resentment, sadness and outrage are served, in luxurious surroundings, with excellent wine, clichés and cutting comments.
Quality Control (no 49, 16pp)
James struggles, despite some fine malt whisky, to manage his interest in furniture design, his job, and his concern for the safety aspect of what he is responsible for. Things fall apart.
Bossa nova & Sing, Sing, Sing (no 50, 16pp, two stories, back to back)
Two short stories in which jazz acts as a metaphor for how well and how badly we manage our relationships, mother daughter, boyfriend girlfriend, drummer clarinetist.
Blue Pencil & Tidy Desk (no 51, 16pp, two stories, back to back)
Stationery as a way of feeling our way through parent/child relationships in adulthood, inevitably uncomfortably.
Animals in Gardens (no 53, 16pp)
Three short stories - unwanted animals get into our gardens, an animal gets out of a garden, and animals do challenging things in a garden.
To Alresford (no 54, 18pp)
A person's memories of staying with curious adult friends as a child; involving dialects and accents, local and otherwise.
Tick Tock (no 55)
A woman's choice of interior furnishings indicate an uneasiness about her relationship with children.
The Ceiling (no 56)
Well, the ceiling is going to fall down, and the lawn won't mow itself, and his daughter's choice of boyfriend is upsetting, and then there's his wife's new hobby. What could go wrong?
Care (no 58)
Social care of the elderly set in the late medieval world. Very poignant. I read this quite often myself, and it is not an easy read.
A Small Bestiary (no 59)
Three stories about people's dealings with animals. Not exactly 'nice doggy'. A fly, a dog, and a fish all come off badly, but wave our moral compasses in our faces.
On Holiday (no 62)
A young woman's period starts on the first day of her holiday with a new boyfriend. Oh dear.
Little Jumping Joan
There will be many manifestations of this text, used as a way of playing with book design. Ten pounds.
Three Gentle Stories (no 40)
Prepositions, Two Down at Half-time, and Heaven, bound together, most handsomely. Twenty pounds.
Five Stories Involving Funerals (no 37)
They are:
Double Act
How To Peel An Egg
Thirst
Guaranteed waterproof
Prepositions
Handbound hardback, limited edition, with relief prints. Forty-five pounds.
...........................................................................................................................................
And the inevitable rant:
Digital publishing has changed the world of the book, in many beneficial ways – for example print on demand and desk-top printing. However, authors’ rights have often been brushed aside, and Artificial Intelligence threatens authors’ rights of ownership as well as the integrity of the text . Hence Stuff Like That books will be producing handmade books only.
In design the books reference chapbooks - early children's books – and handmade artist books; they are printed in small numbers, as objects to be held in the hand.
Additional Information
Barely There At All Books
Typed and stencilled on sewing pattern paper, very fragile, very small. Mostly one side of a conversation. Ten pounds each.
Little Jumping Joan (no 1)
Oi, Bobby Nicholls (no 2)
Oi, Johnny (no 3)
Oi, Jase (4)
Hey babes (no 11)
Oi, Ahmed (no 20)
Christmas Wishes (no 57)
Small books wishing the reader seasonal delights, illustrated by postage stamps. A small but large helping of festive irony.
Four Pairs of Shorts (no 61)
Eight stories on individual sheets. In a paper bag! Limited numbered and signed edition of 50.
Stuff Like That books will not be available digitally.
Contact me by email for purchases.
Payments can be made by Paypal or direct bank transfer.
A few excerpts:
from Man On A Pole
It went on, the chain of introductions to people who she would probably not see again till the funeral of one of them, all eager to tell her that they were doing weights, or had bought a new mower, or were looking after cats, or were acting in Ibsen, or couldn’t chew, or had given up smoking, or gluten, or lactose, or alcohol, or being interested in other people, which was fairly clear without being said.
- Ah Janice, still pursuing a career in politics?
- Absolutely Uncle Roger, hot on its heels.
from Shit Day
I hung around just to make sure we didn’t get on the same train. I was going to be late for work anyway. I walked round the car park. I was saying ‘Fuck, job done, fuck’ for the tenth time when I realised I had trodden on – a squashed animal. What’s the animal you least want to tread on when it’s already been squashed?
- I don’t know. A fish? A horse?
from Heaven
He was a handsome blond-haired lad, and she a fine young woman, short, and with brown hair which she wore short. They had got off with each other at Mitchell’s sixteenth birthday party; she had had a lot of vodka, but Anders had not taken advantage of her, as far as she was aware, and that was a good sign, especially when he texted her the next day and asked if she wanted to hang out on the common. ‘Yes, please’ she responded, crossed out the ‘please’, and then reinstated it. And so they did, finding many shared interests, particularly vodka, swimming, and kissing.
from How To Peel An Egg
Make sure the egg is cold. Make sure the egg is warm. Use the flat end of a small teaspoon. Make sure the flat end of the small teaspoon is curved in the exact same curvature of the egg (which is of course not equal all round the egg, Lucrecia told her mobile phone). Ensure the spoon is wet. Ensure the egg is wet. Dip the spoon in oil. Use a round-ended butter knife. Make sure there is butter on the butter knife? she wondered. Wet the knife in vinegar. Do the whole process under running water. Keep the egg dry.
