Publishing is a rich and varied network, populated with smart readers and writers, brilliant editors and designers, and daredevil publishers and business owners who produce books at astonishing quality and speed. I am honoured and humbled to be a part of this ecosystem every single day. I also work closely with independent store owners and librarians who, besides being strong-minded and independent thinkers, are committed to their missives with an inspiring level of dedication. I am personally very passionate about books as a bridge for culture & literacy, and so filling my days with these people and their books, and being in the store and library spaces, is always both simultaneously fun, stimulation and nourishing. For my masters degree, I specialized in community development studies, specifically how publishing books can be a means by which we can build social capital, introduce progressive cultural norms, and transform our communities. As Mark Twain says, if we don't read, we no advantage over those who cannot read.