Lothar Müller

When journalists review books written by other journalists which furthermore deal with a still essential element of their craft, a healthy dose of skepticism is in order. The frenetic applause this book received in the press is certainly not warranted. It is a beautifully designed book that takes a literary approach to the history of paper. It is not a history of technology; it is also not an economic history and it quickly discards paper products not of the printed world (from toilet paper to sanitary napkins). Mainly, it is an account of what the literati such as Goethe thought and wrote about the wonders of paper which is nice to read but not really sufficient to cover all the magic advertised in the title.

The most interesting aspect I found the textile recycling origin of paper which made paper production dependent on the rags of the city which would be turned into paper and sold to the citizens. A true urban product that only left the city when a technological revolution permitted to create paper out of wood. It is also noteworthy that the paper revolution is bigger than the Gutenberg print revolution as printing is only one use of the versatile paper. Printers still play an important part in this book, such as explaining the insider joke of Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass. In printer jargon, a "grass" was an experimental non-customer ordered set page. As seems almost mandatory among journalists of a certain age, the fear of modern technology, the internet and e-books.mars the final part of the book. Overall, the content of the book seems to fit more into the perishable world of electronic texts than enduring paper. It is certainly not a book that anyone would safe in case of a fire.… (altro)