Our Story

Hi 🤪,

My name is Ben, and I am an entrepreneur who LOVES to read. I can remember the exact moment when I learned to read. I was trying to read The Snow Baby by Margaret Hillert, and I was jumping from word to word. There was this magical moment where the words came alive, and it all clicked. It was one of the most amazing feelings in my life.

That moment inspires everything I am trying to build with Shepherd.

Books build better humans.

I believe that books build better humans, and I am on a mission to help everyone find the book they didn't know they were looking for.

I created Shepherd to add magic and serendipity to online book discovery.

When I look for a new book online, it feels soulless. Online bookstores sell books like toothpaste or powdered gravy mix, and something about that is profoundly wrong.

Books are magic.

Books are imagination fuel.

Books change how we see the world.

Books change the direction of our lives.

Books transport us across time and space.

Books let us see the world through another person's eyes and emotions.

I believe they are one of the biggest net positives in the world.

Carl Sagan said it best in Cosmos:

What an astonishing thing a book is. It's a flat object made from a tree with flexible parts on which are imprinted lots of funny dark squiggles. But one glance at it and you're inside the mind of another person, maybe somebody dead for thousands of years. Across the millennia, an author is speaking clearly and silently inside your head, directly to you. Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding together people who never knew each other, citizens of distant epochs. Books break the shackles of time. A book is proof that humans are capable of working magic.

What sparked Shepherd?

I always wanted to create something around books but could never find a unique approach. One day I walked into my local indie bookstore and saw little notes from the staff about which books are their favorites and why. I loved that idea because it exposed the passion behind the picks.

Shepherd reveals that same passion by asking authors, experts, and interesting people for their favorite books around topics, themes, and moods. And we are trying to figure out how to make finding your next book an experience equal to the magic of books.

Are you crazy? What is your business model?

I don't think I am crazy (famous last words)! Here is along breakdown about me and why I started this website. And some items from our FAQ:

If you want to follow me as I build Shepherd, subscribe here (I send an email every two weeks to update subscribers on the project).

Or, we have a monthly newsletter for authors that shares data, traffic stats, and other great stuff.

Thanks, Ben