Slender Volumes

POEMS BY RICHARD VON STURMER

SHORTLISTED for
2025 OCKHAM NEW ZEALAND BOOK AWARDS
2025 NEW ZEALAND BOOK DESIGN AWARDS

$ 38.00

Elaborating on kōans collected by poet-philosopher Eihei Dōgen, Slender Volumes fastens centuries and distances together to find insight in everyday things: seagulls on a handrail, insects drinking from a pan of water, sump oil glistening in a white bucket.

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hoof prints
leaf litter
broken twigs
scat

a spoor is a scent
a track or trail
a trace of an animal
up ahead.

Spoor Books is an independent publisher, a community platform and an online bookstore featuring titles from India and beyond. Based in Titirangi, Aotearoa New Zealand, we aim to connect readers with left-field inquiries and non-Western imaginaries.

The name is inspired by our whippet Mishti Boy. Dogs read the world with their noses to the ground, using a spoor to trace where other animals have been and track where they’re going. The metaphor captures what books have been for readers: a way to spoor through the dense thicket of ideas towards imaginative clearings.

PHOTO

Balamohan Shingade and Erena Shingade with Mishti Boy.

CONTACT

spoorbooks@gmail.com

DISTRIBUTION & STOCKISTS

Visit Expensive Hobby for a full list of our stockists,
and find our books at your local bookshop using BookHub.

NGĀ MIHI

Our heartfelt thank you to Katie Kerr for design, Foundation North
for funding, Peter Dowling for guidance, and Rosabel Tan for conversations.

1. INDEPENDENT PUBLISHER

2. COMMUNITY PLATFORM

3. ONLINE BOOKSTORE