Chloe Eudaly Interviewed on Bangback

I’ve already shared how much I love Pinball Publishing’s blog Bangback, and they have delivered the goods once again by posting a terrific interview with Reading Frenzy’s “faithful proprietress” Chloe Eudaly.  Reading Frenzy by the way, just achieved full funding on their Kickstarter project with 33 hours to spare!!  Anyhow, here is a sample from the interview:

[Bangback]Reading Frenzy celebrated its 15 year anniversary this past year. Wow! This milestone is extremely impressive for so many reason, especially given the changing nature of print media and challenges faced by the publishing and bookselling industry. Can you tell us why you started Reading Frenzy in the first place, and what your goals were with setting up shop? Do you think there are another 15 years ahead?

[Chloe Eudaly]After dropping out of high school and working a series of interesting but low-paying jobs with various small businesses, I decided that if I was going to spend half my waking hours working for a pittance that I might as well work for myself and that it had better be something that felt really worthwhile to me. Factsheet 5and High Weirdness by Mail had provided me with an introduction to the burgeoning zine community (c. 1988) and I had become immersed as a zine reader and sometimes contributor. At that time there weren’t many local outlets for alternative media and most of what I was reading was obtained via mail order or on my travels.

One night in 1992, outside of the X-Ray cafe, it occurred to me that I could hitch a cart to my bicycle, fill it with zines and ride around town to shows, demonstrations, and other public gatherings. I was accumulating masses of zines and comics, and it just seemed like a lot of work to go to in order for one person to read them. The idea went through various stages – street kiosk, zinemobile – but finally turned into a regular old storefront when publisher Adam Parfrey pointed me in the direction of David Morrison (a local rare book dealer) who had a tiny and cheap space for rent on SE 37th Ave. a few doors off Hawthorne.

Read the rest here...

Image credit Bangback.