about three books

three books coffee is an exploration into what it means to interact with physical narratives.

coffee, in particular, has a deeply physical and global narrative in every cup. you can walk a few blocks in any direction in los angeles to pick up a coffee grown in honduras and roasted in amsterdam.

three books is a physical pop-up here in la by will shadley. at each event where the experience pops up, the only information guests are presented with are three books sitting on the table. these three books act as the menu, with each of them having a corresponding, exceptionally brewed coffee.

some of the coffees will have a more evident correlation with a book, some will require a bit more interpretation. the poetic works of shelley might be paired with a super light and floral geisha from colombia. the complete guide to beekeeping, quite obviously, would be paired with a las lajas black honey.

however, a book like the unbearable lightness of being, a novel that battles with aesthetics and meaning-making, has always felt like sitting alone in a diner at 2am in the middle of both america and an identity crisis. it is meaningless and beautiful all at once. devoid of opportunity and full of it. a book like that ought to be paired with a nutty, chocolatey coffee from brazil, the type of coffee you’d find in a diner at 2am.

books too are more than just a series of words and paragraphs. how things sit in physical relation to one another matters. the space matters. the distance. because of a book’s history and the history of its physicality, it takes on meaning that the kindle e-book version cannot.

three books is an attempt to tie these two seemingly disparate interests. please enjoy.