This year has been a good one – maybe our second or third best since we started in 2007. I won’t have all the numbers for a couple weeks, but to close out the year, here are our top 10 books in terms of unit sales. There are some surprises.
- The Anarchist’s Tool Chest: This book topped the list because we printed the last press run of the current edition in an original tan cover. (If you want a copy, you better snatch it because we are almost out.) I’m working on the revised edition, which will be in color and will be released in 2025.
- The Anarchist’s Design Book: This is a surprise to me. I have no explanation.
- The American Peasant: We sold out the first press run and we are now into the second.
- Principles of Design: We printed (and sold) 3,000 copies in three months. We weren’t planning on doing a second run, but y’all changed our minds. This book will be back in stock in January.
- Set & File: Not a surprise. This book sold well right out of the gate and has long legs.
- Dutch Tool Chests: A surprisingly strong showing for a book that was released so late in the year (October). The book sold more copies on the first day than any book in our history.
- The Anarchist’s Workbench: You do know this book is free, right?
- The Essential Woodworker: One of the hardest-working books in our catalog. Thank you, Robert Wearing.
- The Stick Chair Book: Revised Edition: Also free.
- Backwoods Chairmakers: Such a good book, and its success is well-deserved.
We have lots of books in the works for 2025. We hope you’ll like them!
— Christopher Schwarz
And a Merry Christmas to you all. BTW, you missed your Exeter hammers selling out in nanoseconds. It probably deserved a mention, so I will do it.
And as last year, a list of the top 10 books for the Nordic and European readers bought from Rubank Verktygs.
Doormaking and Window-Making
Essential Woodworker
Set & File: A Practical Guide to Saw Sharpening
The Anarchist’s Tool Chest
Sharpen This
Principles of Design: Furniture, Pottery & Metalwork
The Stick Chair Book – Revised Edition
Carving: Carving, Pattern & Color in the Slöjd Tradition
Slöjd in Wood
The Woodworker’s Pocket Book
I’m not surprised Dutch Tool Chests sold so well. I bought it for two reasons:
1. I like Megan’s writing. It’s clear, concise, and always entertaining.
2. I see the book as a basic WW skills primer, which I still need even after a lifetime of hobbyist WW.
I laughed out loud when I got to “You do know this book is free, right?”
“Set and File”, like the others on the list, is a really good one. With that book alone I was able to successfully restore, then refile and sharpen an old unknown backsaw that had been given to me by a friend. I was simply amazed that I accomplished this feat with my very first attempt. And the backsaw cuts amazing well, too.
Why would #2 be a surprise? It’s one I regularly recommend to people because it provides a ton of fun projects, and I feel like it espouses on your philosophy much better than the Anarchist’s Tool Chest. ATC is a lot more tool-focused, whereas ADB has actually validated some of my existing feelings about consumer culture and at the same time, changed my overall outlook about life. On top of that, it feels like a great starting point before dedicating yourself fully towards stick chairs. While the Stick Chair Book is a must-read, the Anarchist’s Design Book still feels like a better starting point towards exploring stick furniture.
I have to say I’m surprised to see the stick chair book selling below Essential Woodworker. I’d wager that more than half of the readership are drawn towards Chris Schwarz’ personality first and foremost. His writing is enjoyable, whereas the Essential Woodworker, appropriately covering the essentials, is a dry read and involves a heaping ton of page-turning between the descriptions and the drawings which can be multiple pages away sometimes. Backwoods Chairmakers was an awesome read, like Schwarz’ writings on stick chairs, has turned my attention towards ladderback chairs in a way I never expected.
I can honestly say LAP is the only vendor I have bought from and never returned. Keep writing and I’ll keep buying. Besides, who’s needs three meals every day!