Books about books: May the tribe grow

The Book Makers: A History of the Book in Eighteen Lives
Adam Smyth
Published by Basic Books

Adam Smyth, a lecturer at Balliol College at the University of Oxford, teaches English literature and the history of the book. Additionally, he maintains a tiny printing press in Oxfordshire, England, called the 39 Steps Press.

In The Book Makers, Smyth is a vivid celebration of 550 years of the printed book, told through 18 remarkable lives of printers, binders, typesetters, and paper-makers. For example, did you know, Benjamin Franklin identified himself in his will not as a statesman, inventor or thinker, but as a printer.

Smyth highlights the significance of women in bookmaking, citing the sisters Mary and Anna Collett as examples of a trend that involves tearing books apart with scissors and knives and then reassembling them with illustrations and additional text.

Trivia: PrintWeek gifted this book to the jury members who were part of the PrintWeek Awards 2024. And almost everyone loved it.

 

The Coming of the Book: The Impact of Printing, 1450-1800
Lucien Febvre and Henri-Jean Martin; Translated by David Gerard
Published by Verso Books

Lucien Febvre, a prominent historian, co-founded a French scholarly magazine, Annales, with its focus on social history, and Henri-Jean Martin, a renowned expert on the evolution of early printing, the historians investigated the formation of the book, marking the beginning of the modern age and a process of great historical significance. 

In this account of the process of book formation and making, the two historians integrate multiple sources to establish the origins of the printed word. Fascinating stuff.

 

The Bookseller’s Tale
Martin Latham
Published by Penguin Press

Martin Latham, the author of The Bookseller’s Tale, was a bookseller for three decades at Waterstones in Canterbury, England. The Bookseller's Tale is a compilation of information and analysis on the meaning of books and people’s responses to them across time and cultural boundaries.

The book’s thirteen chapters cover a range of topics, including books, characters, authors, collectors, obsessives, and people who simply love books.  Latham's book is an ode to books, the craft of reading, bookselling, and connecting with book lovers. 

Trivia: Martin Latham has completed a PhD in Indian history.

 

 

Burning the Books: A History of Knowledge Under Attack
Richard Ovenden
Published by John Murray Publishers

Richard Ovenden, the 25th director of Bodleian Libraries in Oxford, in Burning the Books, tells the story of a cast of adventurers, poets, archaeologists, freedom fighters, and librarians who go to heroic lengths to preserve and rescue knowledge, ensuring the survival of civilisation. 

Burning the Books is a powerful history of civilisation and a manifesto for the survival of physical libraries in the digital age. Libraries continue to uphold the rule of law and citizens’ rights, such as the Magna Carta, but attacks on libraries and archives have become more frequent in modern day. 

Ovenden reminds us that libraries and librarians are the keepers of human history — without them, we wouldn't know who we are. And reminds us, we need many more libraries.

 

 

 

Shady Characters: Ampersands, Interrobangs and Typographical Curiosities
Keith Houston
Published by Particular Books, Penguin Books

Houston’s debut novel, Shady Characters, explores the history of writing and communication. Houston examines how punctuation has developed with each major technological advancement, reflecting the evolution of written communication across time.  

In each chapter, he examines a specific sign (such as the pilcrow, the interrobang, the octothorpe, the ampersand, the @ symbol, the asterisk, the dagger, the hyphen, the dash, and various quotation marks) and its genesis.

Additionally, he lists ten major groups of symbols, a chapter on irony markings, examining the Dutch zig-zag ironieteken, and other various types of snark marks, giggle points, and digital sarcasm emotes.

A fun book, even though it sounds like gobbledygook.