[Audiobook]
The Book, a Cover to Cover Exploration of the Most Powerful Object of our Time, by Keith Houston
I was looking for an audiobook about marginalia but failed miserably (recommendations, anyone?). Instead, I found this.
The history of the book is long and storied, this book goes into a lot of detail about the different part that make up the book.
It starts by exploring the history of substrates, papyrus, parchment and paper, explaining the making and significant developments along the way.
Then it talks about the development of inks, and the processes by which the two are joined, with various writing and printing mechanisms. This is followed by a history of how collections of written work were put together, starting with scrolls and working through codices to the modern day idea of a book. Ultimately it talks about the binding of pages together into the portable units of knowledge we know today.
The history here talks about the feeding of ideas from one culture to another, how each learned from others, the innovations flowing in all directions between the Chinese, the Christians, the Muslims, the Egyptians and many others, with the silk road being a vital highway for the transmission of these ideas.
There is also a lot of context and further information added about some of the landmark inventions along the way. The moveable type of Guttenbergs press was certainly innovative, but it was not an advance made in a vacuum, there were other developments around the same time which he brought together. And the switch to the automation afforded by adding rollers to these presses was nearly as important to the widespread dissemination of information.
Something which is alluded to but largely missing from this book is a discussion of the rise of literacy over the period covered – books had to have understanding eyes to read them.
A potted history of the book, this tome covers a lot of ground without great depth – it keeps itself interesting by including a lot of stories of significant people along the way. A worthy read, a jumping off point for many potential interests, codicology, the German book fairs, papyrus making, tanning, lithography and plenty of others.