Some big news today: The Book: A Cover-to-Cover Exploration of the Most Powerful Object of our Time will be published soon in paperback!
The paperback edition is updated from the hardback, with all of the various errata fixed and a number of changes made to account for the book’s paperback rather than hardcover construction.* If you remember, the hardback edition had a number of references to its own physical form (“Tip the book towards you and look at the spine”, and so on) which have now been modified accordingly. Of course, the paperback edition provides a new and different set of reference points, so if some passages now ask you to find a hardback on your bookshelf, others can now tell you to look again at the paperback in your hands.
The paperback is currently available to pre-order from all the usual places.
A couple more book-related links this week!
The Book’s subtitle is “A Cover-to-Cover Exploration of the Most Powerful Object of our Time”, what about book-shaped objects that aren’t actually books? A recent exhibit† at New York’s Met Museum examines exactly that conceit through a collection of “objects in book form” donated to the museum by one Lynn Geringer Heckmann. My favourite is this late 18th-century tea caddy shaped like a stack of four books, with the lock concealed in a smaller, fifth book on top.
The exhibit has since ended, but there’s plenty to dig into in the online catalogue.
From objects that look like books to objects for storing books: a compendious blog post from Lost Art Press of Covington, Kentucky, dives into the world of bookshelves and other items of furniture for arranging books and keeping them safe. Apt, for a publisher which focuses on woodworking and allied subjects. It’s worth reading to the end for some images of the book “carousels” developed in the early modern period — a kind of Alt+Tab (or ⌘+Tab for Mac users) mechanism embodied in wood and gears, allowing a reader to switch in a moderately convenient way between a collection of open books. Have a read!
- *
- I may have spooked the printer just a little by hunting down their contact info and emailing to ask for details of the paperback’s construction. Their email to W. W. Norton with the requisite information had a slightly hunted air about it. Leave us alone, rogue author! ↢
- †
- Recent-ish, anyway; I’ve been busy writing another book! ↢
Comment posted by Mary Ann Atwood on
The article quoted Charles Dickens, “We never tire of the friendships we form with books.” In that regard, I never tire of the incredible tidbits of information shared in Miscellany. Thank you Mr. Houston.
Comment posted by Elsa Louise on
I bought The Book, and B&N sent me an email that shipping is nigh, likely in early May. So exciting!
Comment posted by Chris on
Heading and first para don’t seem to agree on the numbering…
Comment posted by Keith Houston on
Thanks all for the comments!
Chris — the numbering of the posts in the series unfortunately doesn’t account for the fact that there is a 1/2-numbered Miscellany entry in there! The number of posts is correct, the numbering isn’t.