npm install not creating node_modules folder
<p>I am just trying to run npm install . in a local directory, and keep getting these errors: </p>

<pre><code>npm ERR! install Couldn't read dependencies
npm ERR! Darwin 15.2.0
npm ERR! argv "/usr/local/bin/node" "/usr/local/bin/npm" "install" "."
npm ERR! node v4.4.6
npm ERR! npm  v2.15.5
npm ERR! code EISDIR
npm ERR! errno -21
npm ERR! syscall read

npm ERR! eisdir EISDIR: illegal operation on a directory, read
npm ERR! eisdir This is most likely not a problem with npm itself
npm ERR! eisdir and is related to npm not being able to find a     package.json in
npm ERR! eisdir a package you are trying to install.
</code></pre>

<p>All I'm doing is cd'ing into my directory and running npm install . I have a packages.json file in there, as well. Any idea why this isn't working???
EDIT: contents of packages.json file is below:</p>

<pre><code>{
  "name": "speech-recognition",
 "version": "1.0.0",
 "description": "speech recognition app",
 "main": "application.js",
 "scripts": {
   "test": "echo \"Error: no test specified\" &amp;&amp; exit 1",
   "start": "node server.js"
 },
 "author": "Lisa Buch",
 "license": "ISC"
 }
</code></pre>