title: npm install not creating node_modules folder
body: <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>