What are we doing?

This is the starting point for our project. Or maybe not exactly. “We” are a book lover/hoarder and a Francophone/librarian-on-hold who like to both read about and enjoy a coffee (for the former), a cup of tea (for the latter) and something stiffer at day’s end. The book part lead us to search out texts about the drinks we enjoy. We find books from other cultures and other times that look interesting but are not written in English. Each of these books is a potential treasure chest of information that has been locked away from us and other fans of drink culture behind the wall of another language.

The internet is to blame. Without it, we would never know that these books existed. We would be content in our ignorance, thinking that our English books were all there was, none the wiser for what we were missing. Now a search of Google Books, or the National Library of France or other online troves of digitized texts turns up numerous books on café, thé and liqueur that we cannot adequately read and enjoy. Argh!

But…

The internet also gives a solution. Online translation services let us pry open the work and revel in the observations and information contained in those works. The technology that allows the internet to connect us to new sources also allows us to access their contents and then construct and distribute copies of the translated works.

We do this for the joy of discovery and the chance to share with you, internet reader, the information we find. We hope you enjoy these works as much as we do.

Reading Monographie du Café (in translation) prompted Jim to try his hand at growing coffee. These three coffee tree seedlings were set out around the time Brown Dog Press was starting. Follow with us as both projects grow.