Slippery little buggers, those words.

Just when old Gutenberg finds a way to wrangle them from the ether, here comes the Internet. And off they zoom again, from blogosphere to BlackBerry, leaving us readers with little to hold onto but our iPods.

Cloverfield Press remembers the good old days when a book was an actual object — one to cherish, no less. The local publisher cranks out limited, numbered editions of short stories by writers both new and established, in meticulously bound volumes. Each book is accompanied by delicate letterpress covers and illustrations on fine paper.

Choose from new titles like The Boy from Lam Kien by Me and You and Everyone We Know auteur Miranda July. Or go for an elegant rendition of a literary favorite, like Haruki Murakami’s Tony Takitani. Can’t decide? A four-title subscription makes a great gift (especially for anyone who thinks Gutenberg was the guy in Cocoon). At $39.95, it’s a pretty good package, considering what you get.

After all, a good book is worth way more than a thousand words.

Available at Skylight Books, 1818 North Vermont Avenue, between Franklin and Prospect Avenues, Los Feliz (323-660-1175); Dutton’s Brentwood, 11975 San Vicente Boulevard, between Bundy Drive and Barrington Avenue, Brentwood (310-476-6263); online at cloverfieldpress.com.