0:00:09.205,0:00:13.916
I'm Craig and with a group [br]of beautiful friends that I love,

0:00:13.916,0:00:18.627
and at this moment miss very much,[br]I run a small bookshop

0:00:18.627,0:00:23.338
in the town of Oia, on the island of Santorini [br]in the south of Greece.

0:00:23.338,0:00:31.383
And we do philosophy books,[br]and we do some Greek history

0:00:31.383,0:00:35.336
and general non fiction, [br]we do travel logs and journals.

0:00:35.336,0:00:42.505
We print our own books once in a while and [br]we celebrate tzatziki at every opportunity,

0:00:42.505,0:00:47.736
and we feed it to people [br]on our terrace until they explode.

0:00:47.736,0:00:51.029
We have readings [br]in the evenings in the shop

0:00:51.029,0:00:55.306
and we make bonfires [br]on the terrace at night.

0:00:56.353,0:01:03.339
But mostly we specialize in fiction.

0:01:03.339,0:01:04.710
When the rare occasion does come,

0:01:04.710,0:01:08.451
that someone offers to give me money[br]in exchange for a book and I perk up,

0:01:08.451,0:01:13.455
they're generally putting a story [br]on the table and saying "I'd like this"

0:01:13.455,0:01:19.178
and then more often than not, [br]they'll ask "What are you doing here?",

0:01:19.178,0:01:23.393
"Who are you?" and sometimes [br]they'll ask "Do you take dollars?"

0:01:23.393,0:01:26.227
or "Where are your copies [br]of 'Fifty shades of grey'?"

0:01:26.243,0:01:27.535
(Laughter)

0:01:27.535,0:01:29.512
(Greek): Bullshit

0:01:29.512,0:01:37.411
(Laughter)[br](Applause)

0:01:37.411,0:01:40.512
And if I am in the mood [br]and if I've had a glass of wine

0:01:40.512,0:01:48.429
or I'll offer a glass of wine to the customer [br]and we'll sit down and, you know,

0:01:48.429,0:01:51.459
I'll tell them a little bit of stories.

0:01:51.459,0:01:56.966
And over the years we've had [br]a thousand tellings of the story over and over.

0:01:56.966,0:01:59.472
And people come [br]and ask for our nativity story [br]

0:01:59.472,0:02:04.025
and we have a thousand alternations of it,[br]and to keep us awake and alert,

0:02:04.025,0:02:07.965
and keep our muscle taught,[br]sometimes, we'll, just for fun,

0:02:07.965,0:02:12.281
throw in little twists on the truth, [br]to see what we can slip by a customer

0:02:12.281,0:02:14.904
that we're probably [br]never gonna see again.

0:02:14.904,0:02:17.698
So I'll tell them that I was born [br]in Mississippi instead of Tennessee,

0:02:17.698,0:02:21.259
or I'll tell them that I got to college[br]on a basketball scholarship

0:02:21.259,0:02:28.327
or I'll tell them that I was one of the founders [br]of Facebook and watch them shake.

0:02:30.051,0:02:33.585
And I mean, this is what we do,

0:02:33.585,0:02:39.451
our stock and trade, honestly 75% [br]and more of our day is spent

0:02:39.451,0:02:44.193
selling and telling [br]stories at the bookshop.

0:02:44.502,0:02:49.120
And so, when I was invited here, [br]I had actually to spin and tell our story.

0:02:49.120,0:02:51.877
I had to actually think for a minute,[br]because I wanted to make sure

0:02:51.877,0:02:56.451
that I didn't mess up, [br]get the facts wrong.

0:02:57.051,0:02:59.346
After a while, you start to dissociate yourself

0:02:59.346,0:03:03.474
and the story becomes something [br]that you weren't even there.

0:03:03.474,0:03:06.295
You remember it more [br]as a story that you've told,

0:03:06.295,0:03:07.915
than a story that you've actually lived.

0:03:07.915,0:03:12.830
So I came back to this instant [br]and then I thought OK,

0:03:12.830,0:03:17.263
I should probably tell something [br]much more proximate to the truth here.

0:03:17.263,0:03:21.376
But then I realized, probably the quickest way [br]to quickly tell that would be to base it

0:03:21.376,0:03:25.746
on the most important lies [br]that we encountered,

0:03:25.746,0:03:30.285
and that we told ourselves [br]to make this bookshop happen.

0:03:30.285,0:03:32.825
So indulge me for a couple of minutes,

0:03:32.825,0:03:40.200
and I'll give you the quick story of how [br]we did this or are doing this so far.

0:03:41.370,0:03:43.335
The way that I'll set it up, so yeah,

0:03:43.335,0:03:46.101
we start printing these books [br]in the back room of the shop,

0:03:46.101,0:03:51.513
just on our own as a little money maker [br]on the side to make ends meet,

0:03:51.513,0:03:53.165
because we've always wanted to do it.

0:03:53.165,0:03:55.927
And so we were looking at old titles [br]in the public domain

0:03:55.927,0:04:00.859
of favourite authors of ours,[br]and one of the fellows in our crew,

0:04:00.859,0:04:06.084
Chris Bloomfield, that's Bloomfield [br]with two O's he wanted me to mention,

0:04:06.084,0:04:10.453
Chris Bloomfield came across [br]this old essay that this very handsome man,

0:04:10.453,0:04:15.680
Mark Twain, wrote for a speech competition [br]in Connecticut back in the 1880s I believe.

0:04:15.680,0:04:19.984
He did not win the prize, [br]but it's a beautiful little essay.

0:04:19.984,0:04:22.827
And there is this one little part of it [br]that I'll just launch off of it

0:04:22.827,0:04:24.395
and if you want to read along with me, it says

0:04:24.395,0:04:26.587
"Lying is universal. We all do it."

0:04:26.587,0:04:29.518
And we can argue that later, but I think [br]everyone, we're on the same team here.

0:04:29.518,0:04:32.328
"Therefore, the wise thing is for us[br]to diligently train ourselves

0:04:32.328,0:04:35.148
to lie thoughtfully, juduciously; [br]to lie with a good object,

0:04:35.148,0:04:39.045
and not an evil one; [br]to lie for others' advantage, and not our own;

0:04:39.045,0:04:43.526
to lie healingly, charitably, humanely, [br]not cruelly, hurtfully, maliciously;

0:04:43.526,0:04:47.604
to lie gracefully and graciously, [br]not awkwardly and clumsily…

0:04:47.604,0:04:51.105
Then shall we be rid of the rank [br]pestilent truth that is rotting the land;

0:04:51.105,0:04:54.761
then shall we be great [br]and good and beautiful."

0:04:54.761,0:04:58.540
And so we looked at each other [br]and we said "Yeah, we're doing this, yeah."

0:04:58.540,0:05:02.151
(Laughter)

0:05:02.151,0:05:06.581
So let me tell you a little [br]about the best lies of all,

0:05:06.581,0:05:11.110
and give you a sense of how [br]we came to be here from far away.

0:05:11.011,0:05:15.442
I first came to Santorini by chance, by [br]coincidence, got on the first boat out of Pireaus

0:05:15.442,0:05:18.900
when I was on holiday with my friend Oliver.

0:05:18.900,0:05:24.256
This was back in 2002, [br]we came to this island, we sat down,

0:05:24.256,0:05:28.483
we poured ourselves a glass of wine, [br]poured some olive oil over some tomatoes,

0:05:28.483,0:05:34.913
and basically sat on our terrace and stared out [br]with our mouths slightly gape for several days

0:05:34.913,0:05:37.630
and then on about the fourth [br]or the fifth day we were there,

0:05:37.630,0:05:43.330
we ran out of books to read [br]and there was no bookshop.

0:05:43.330,0:05:49.429
So, we did some drinking instead.

0:05:49.429,0:05:51.823
And we were stumbling back [br]from a restaurant one night

0:05:51.823,0:05:53.478
and I just looked over at Oliver and said,

0:05:53.478,0:05:56.966
"Oliver, we gotta open a bookshop, [br]so that nobody else has to do this",

0:05:56.966,0:05:59.869
and he said "That's a great idea, [br]we'll call it Atlantis books",

0:05:59.869,0:06:03.925
and I said "That's not a very good name, [br]but we'll worry about that tomorrow."

0:06:03.925,0:06:06.103
And we woke up the next morning [br]and I said "Bookshop!",

0:06:06.103,0:06:09.219
and he said "We're sober now",[br]and I said "No, no, no, bookshop."

0:06:09.219,0:06:11.441
And so we went back to Athens,

0:06:11.441,0:06:14.970
we went to the commercial services [br]office at the Embassy,

0:06:14.970,0:06:17.450
and we met this lady, Eleni,

0:06:17.450,0:06:19.846
(Laughter)

0:06:19.846,0:06:25.139
and we said "Can a couple of Americans [br]open a bookshop in Greece?"

0:06:25.139,0:06:30.655
and she looked at me and she said [br](In Greek): "It will be easy".

0:06:30.655,0:06:32.600
(Laughter)

0:06:32.600,0:06:35.784
It will be easy.

0:06:35.784,0:06:39.600
You know, you go to the tax office [br]and they give you a paper with the stamp

0:06:39.600,0:06:41.508
and then you go [br]to the cash machine store

0:06:41.508,0:06:44.170
and you buy a cash machine [br]and you put it on your desk.

0:06:44.170,0:06:45.338
And (In Greek) here you go, [br]you are a bookstore.

0:06:45.338,0:06:49.646
and so we said "Great, great" [br]and it was such a good answer

0:06:49.646,0:06:53.544
and we ran with it so fast that we didn't [br]even think to ask her a second opinion,

0:06:53.544,0:06:56.663
because when you get an answer [br]that's that good, you're just gonna run with it.

0:06:56.663,0:07:00.630
So we went back and we went about [br]the business of graduating from university

0:07:00.630,0:07:03.582
and got together [br]the best people that we knew,

0:07:03.582,0:07:08.552
the most incredible group of friends [br]and convinced them to come along with us

0:07:08.552,0:07:13.583
and one girl that during that time [br]I happen to fall in love with,

0:07:13.583,0:07:18.154
and told her that I was going to build her [br]a bookshop at an island in the south of Greece.

0:07:18.154,0:07:22.466
And she said "OK, if you do it, I'll come [br]and I'll make orange juice for you in the mornings"

0:07:22.466,0:07:24.454
and I said "Great, great."

0:07:24.454,0:07:29.659
So we got this crew together, we took a van [br]from Cambridge, England, Christmas 2003

0:07:29.659,0:07:33.819
and we packed up the van [br]and drove it across the continent

0:07:33.819,0:07:38.642
and across the Alps and down to Greece [br]and we got to the tax office.

0:07:38.642,0:07:44.512
And they said (in Greek): [br]"It's not going to be easy".

0:07:44.512,0:07:48.136
(Laughter)[br](Applause)

0:07:48.136,0:07:53.364
So that's another long and much more [br]horrifying TED talk to give you,

0:07:53.364,0:07:58.235
all the details on that. [br]We're on the same team here clearly.

0:07:58.235,0:08:00.610
(Laughter)

0:08:00.980,0:08:02.643
So we gridded our teeth,

0:08:02.643,0:08:06.708
and I sort of slouched like in that picture [br]for several months going through

0:08:06.708,0:08:10.307
and, you know, in the meantime [br]we met the locals and the community.

0:08:10.307,0:08:12.075
We introduced ourselves to them,

0:08:12.075,0:08:14.306
and we said "We are going to open [br]a bookstore" and they believed us,

0:08:14.306,0:08:16.276
and they start treating us like booksellers.

0:08:16.276,0:08:20.205
And so we found [br]this hallucination of a building,

0:08:20.205,0:08:24.288
beneath the castle at the edge of town, [br]this old Venetian castle.

0:08:24.288,0:08:27.140
And we went to the landlord [br]and we said "We want this building",

0:08:27.140,0:08:30.035
and he said "I will rent it to you, [br]but I will charge you way too much,

0:08:30.035,0:08:33.726
and then at the end of the year, I will kick [br]you out so that I can build presidential suites"

0:08:33.726,0:08:37.264
and we said "OK, fine, we'll take it, [br]it's too good to pass out."

0:08:37.264,0:08:40.817
And we're going do such a great job [br]the first year that we're going to melt his heart

0:08:40.817,0:08:44.324
and it's a wonderful life all over again [br]and we'll be fine.

0:08:44.324,0:08:47.123
And even if it doesn't work, [br]if we're going to do it just once off,

0:08:47.123,0:08:49.556
and it's going to die anyhow, this is [br]the perfect place to have the experiment.

0:08:49.556,0:08:53.500
So, we got this building, [br]we adopted a dog and a cat,

0:08:53.500,0:08:57.444
we started putting up some shelves, [br]we started building some tables,

0:08:57.444,0:09:00.896
we got an old fisherman's boat [br]and put it on the terrace.

0:09:00.896,0:09:04.966
And our friends started coming, because [br]they heard that we actually had a place.

0:09:04.966,0:09:07.324
And I started writing [br]their names on the wall

0:09:07.324,0:09:10.205
just so we can keep track [br]of who is passing through.

0:09:10.205,0:09:14.632
If you can see there, that's just [br]the very inception of that back in the years.

0:09:14.632,0:09:16.627
And we got things going,[br]and we were ready to go.

0:09:16.627,0:09:19.918
And by Easter time more and more [br]of them where coming.

0:09:19.918,0:09:26.894
We had Easter Eve, we were ready to go [br]and our shop was very nearly there.

0:09:26.894,0:09:29.486
And we were laughing about how [br]this was really gonna happen

0:09:29.486,0:09:31.631
and that some day we were going [br]to have beautiful kids, like these,

0:09:31.631,0:09:34.670
and they were going [br]to run the shop for us.

0:09:34.670,0:09:39.345
And that first summer was glorious [br]and people came and we had a blast

0:09:39.345,0:09:41.096
and we sold good books.

0:09:41.096,0:09:46.078
And an old drinking buddy of mine [br]from Paris, this fellow Jeremy Mercer,

0:09:46.078,0:09:51.244
was asked to write an article for the Guardian [br]about his ten favourite bookshops,

0:09:51.244,0:09:54.425
and on a lark he put us as his favourite.

0:09:54.425,0:09:59.418
And it turns out that journalists like [br]to copy what they read on the internet,

0:09:59.418,0:10:01.638
because soon we saw [br]ourselves popping up

0:10:01.638,0:10:05.212
on all these other lists [br]of the ten best bookshops in the world.

0:10:05.212,0:10:08.081
That's the only reason, [br]because I had this one friend,

0:10:08.081,0:10:09.580
who wrote something in the Guardian,[br]it comes up

0:10:09.580,0:10:14.802
and that's why everyone believes it.[br]Turns out we were just lucky.[br]

0:10:14.802,0:10:19.059
(Laughter)[br](Applause)

0:10:19.059,0:10:21.519
So, notice that there was [br]no beautiful girl there,

0:10:21.519,0:10:25.302
because in the time that it took [br]to raise that money and motivation

0:10:25.302,0:10:29.085
to actually get it going, she had fallen [br]in love with someone else,

0:10:29.085,0:10:32.446
and got off and I didn't know what to end.

0:10:32.446,0:10:35.807
We were getting close [br]to the end of the year,

0:10:35.807,0:10:39.169
we could hear the footsteps of the landlord, [br]coming closer, closer and closer.

0:10:39.169,0:10:42.720
And we were going to go home,[br]and then another beautiful girl walked in

0:10:42.072,0:10:44.975
and I just completely forgot about [br]anybody else who I had ever seen.

0:10:44.975,0:10:47.880
And I said we were going to fight, [br]we're going to come back.

0:10:47.880,0:10:49.485
We were going to find, [br]we were going to built another one.

0:10:49.485,0:10:51.900
I'm going to build it for her.

0:10:51.090,0:10:52.696
She is the one that [br]I was going to build it for all along.

0:10:52.696,0:10:55.928
(Audience): Bravo![br](Applause)

0:10:55.928,0:10:58.621
And then the landlord [br]came and kicked us out.

0:10:58.621,0:11:02.391
(Laughter)

0:11:03.438,0:11:06.425
And the next winter, so over the winter [br]we found another place,

0:11:06.425,0:11:09.123
that we haven't even noticed the year before,[br]this little dingy place.

0:11:09.123,0:11:14.529
And we rented that and we started [br]painting and bashing down walls,

0:11:14.529,0:11:17.264
and deliberating where we're going [br]to put the new shelves.

0:11:17.264,0:11:19.460
and bashing down more rocks.

0:11:19.460,0:11:22.211
You have to be ambitious to do [br]this kind of thing once by hand,

0:11:22.211,0:11:25.107
but you go a little bit crazy[br]the second time it turns out

0:11:25.107,0:11:30.650
and by Easter year two we had a new shop, [br]and the books were better,

0:11:30.650,0:11:35.913
and they were more of them [br]and we sit upon our terrace,

0:11:35.913,0:11:39.929
and we began to cruise,[br]and we sold our books.

0:11:39.929,0:11:44.392
And we got a new cat [br]and we put the cat to work and we...

0:11:44.392,0:11:50.520
(Laughter)[br](Applause)

0:11:50.520,0:11:55.512
We got a crew to start coming back,

0:11:55.512,0:11:58.257
and Chris was holding court [br]in the back room, there he is.

0:11:58.257,0:12:00.573
And we served up some [br]more tzatziki, as we do.

0:12:00.573,0:12:03.814
And we have more readings [br]and Chris played his cello.

0:12:03.814,0:12:07.374
And we had bonfires in the evening [br]and we met new friends.

0:12:07.374,0:12:11.195
And we danced among the bookshelves[br]in the evenings until the sun came up.

0:12:11.195,0:12:17.187
And we laughed and we argued about [br]which was the most beautiful bookjacket.

0:12:17.187,0:12:24.163
And we pontificated and we watched [br]as things got a little bit hairier on 2008-2009.

0:12:24.163,0:12:29.267
Since then it's been a series of us trying to do[br]whatever we could creatively to stay alive,

0:12:29.267,0:12:31.584
as I'm sure many of you can relate.

0:12:31.584,0:12:34.286
And somehow every year we have [br]this conversation "Is this the end?"

0:12:34.286,0:12:38.006
And we say "Maybe it is" and the we say [br]"Well, what can we do?" and we wait.

0:12:38.006,0:12:42.024
I think it's since 2002 when we first [br]came up with this idea.

0:12:42.024,0:12:46.308
We said "We're just going to run with this [br]until there is a wall that we bash into",

0:12:46.308,0:12:49.674
and we haven't bashed into it yet.

0:12:49.674,0:12:52.416
We started printing our own books [br]in the back room of the shop like I said

0:12:52.416,0:12:56.698
and that's gone larger and [br]that's helped to supplement where,

0:12:56.698,0:13:00.210
we are figuring any sort of ways [br]that we can, to streamline our operation,

0:13:00.210,0:13:05.815
to find new and better and more beautiful [br]and rarer books and it keeps us busy.

0:13:05.815,0:13:12.071
And we're still laughing about maybe [br]our kids will run it some day.

0:13:12.532,0:13:23.092
So, I would say, that in these days,[br]if you find yourselves in the situation

0:13:23.092,0:13:26.169
that we're in, it's now [br]the end of the tourist season

0:13:26.169,0:13:30.755
and I'm looking at the books and I'm gonna [br]go back to Santorini in a couple of days,

0:13:30.755,0:13:32.509
and take a look at where [br]we are at the end of the year,

0:13:32.509,0:13:33.894
and I'm gonna hold my breath,

0:13:33.894,0:13:36.464
and hope that we can pay the rent [br]to get through to next spring.

0:13:36.464,0:13:41.727
And, I believe, I'm gonna tell myself [br]that we're going to do it.

0:13:41.727,0:13:46.421
We're going to keep lying [br]gracefully to ourselves,

0:13:46.421,0:13:49.684
and we're going to run [br]with these graceful lies

0:13:49.684,0:13:52.780
that women like Eleni [br]are going to keep telling us,

0:13:52.780,0:13:59.401
because if she hadn't lied to us to our face, [br]this would never have happened.

0:13:59.401,0:14:07.839
So I would say that. Let us lie [br]gracefully a little bit more

0:14:07.839,0:14:12.262
and watch the people that come [br]and start to believe your story,

0:14:12.262,0:14:17.885
because that spiral over the years grows [br]and continues to grow.

0:14:17.885,0:14:26.504
And we had this spiral [br]that's on the roof of the building,

0:14:26.504,0:14:28.676
and we don't know how we're going [br]to keep everything underneath,

0:14:28.676,0:14:31.127
but there is fellow Henry David Thoreau, [br]another handsome man,

0:14:31.127,0:14:35.704
who said "If you build castles in the air, [br]your work need not be lost;

0:14:35.704,0:14:38.991
that is where they should be. [br]Now build foundations under them."

0:14:38.991,0:14:43.631
And that's what we're doing and if you [br]happen to find yourself in a magical place,

0:14:43.631,0:14:50.415
on a magical land, [br]in some strange and difficult times,

0:14:50.415,0:14:52.136
maybe it's time to believe a few of those lies,

0:14:52.136,0:14:56.381
maybe it's time to look at those castles [br]in the air and keep them there,

0:14:56.381,0:14:58.289
and keep building the foundation under them.

0:14:58.289,0:15:04.474
Because you remember that fellow Oliver, [br]that came on that first trip with me,

0:15:04.474,0:15:11.368
he actually left out the first year. He met [br]a girl the first year and he took her home.

0:15:11.368,0:15:19.010
And they went back and they got married [br]and on the 4th of January 2012, this year,

0:15:19.010,0:15:27.391
eight years to the day, after [br]we first landed on the island of Santorini...

0:15:28.838,0:15:35.174
There is Oliver and there [br]is Annie Palmawise, they had a baby.

0:15:35.174,0:15:40.330
So if we can hold on for eighteen more years, [br]she can run the show for us.

0:15:40.330,0:15:42.757
I hope we stick around, [br]I hope to see you soon.

0:15:42.757,0:15:49.006
(Applause)