Roderick Cave (1935–2019)

The History of the Book in 100 Books is not merely about books per se, instead, it is about the attempt to store information in formats that ensure future generations may have access to that information. Across the globe, humanity has come to grips with the issue of information retrieval and come up with myriad ways to solve it.

The book goes with Chronological Order, beginning with Cave Paintings and going all the way through to the ebook. Since the book is more about information storage and retrieval, it includes counting aids and other things like the Ishango Bone and so on. The book contains a number of other interesting entries coming from China, Japan, Korea, and India. For instance, take the Yongle Dadian. It is an attempt to make a comprehensive encyclopedia, but only four sets survive. Another interesting one is the Complutensian Polyglot Bible, a Bible printed in seven languages on the same page.

Contains a Glossary for unusual terms used in the book, along with a bibliography, picture credits, and an index.… (altro)

This was a fun and interesting look at the evolution of the book. The authors take us from the first things that were used as books all the way to the current ebooks. They cover books of all kind from all over the world. From the palm leaf books of south Indochina to forgotten penny dreadfuls of the 19th century. The research is good, easy to follow and easy to find more if you want to. I really liked seeing what other countries were doing to make and preserve books in the pre-Gutenberg time. The writing was good, with little witticisms from the authors that added to the overall enjoyment of the journey. One thing that they did that I really enjoyed is that they mostly used books that were not very famous. The Book of Kells and one of the original Gutenberg bibles are the one really famous books in this piece. All of the rest are lesser or unknown books.

I give this book a Five out of Five stars.… (altro)