Today’s review is on The Book: A Cover-To-Cover Exploration of the Most Powerful Object of Our Time by Keith Houston. It is 428 pages long including index and notes. This book was published by w w Norton and Company. The intended reader is someone who is interested in the history of the book. The cover is a plain gray brown with a red spine and notes about the different parts of a cover such as header, fore-edge, foot-binding, Etc. There Be Spoilers Ahead.
From the back of the book- We may love books, but do we know what lies behind them? In The Book, Keith Houston reveals that the paper, ink, thread, glue, and board from which a book is made tell as rich a story as the words on its pages―of civilizations, empires, human ingenuity, and madness. In an invitingly tactile history of this 2,000-year-old medium, Houston follows the development of writing, printing, the art of illustrations, and binding to show how we have moved from cuneiform tablets and papyrus scrolls to the hardcovers and paperbacks of today. Sure to delight book lovers of all stripes with its lush, full-color illustrations, The Book gives us the momentous and surprising history behind humanity’s most important―and universal―information technology.
Review- A fascinating, enlightening, and most of all an engaging study into the book. We start with as far back as we can, which is papyrus, how the Egyptians figured out that papyrus was a good medium for paper and then we move forward stopping with clay tablets with spreading westward, woodcuts, Chinese inventions and all the way to the modern-day electronic book. I had a wonderful time reading this book. I have read Houston's first book Shady Characters, which is about punctuation, and had a wonderful time so when I had an opportunity to read this one I had to. The writing is engaging, if you are interested in the subject you will be fascinated and enthralled by it, and the notes at the back add to the understanding of some of the more vague and esoteric parts of the history of the book. Houston does in-depth, solid research that is not overwhelming to the reader but you are not losing any important details as we follow the formation of the most powerful object that humanity has ever created. I absolutely adored this non-fiction book and I would highly recommend it.
I give the non-fiction book a Five out of Five Stars. I get nothing for my review and I borrowed the book from my local library.
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