Like books? From the moment you grab this one, The Book: A Cover-to-Cover Exploration of the Most Powerful Object of Our Time, you will know it’s a winner, since its very cover embodies the topic: how books are printed, illustrated, and made. It’s a history of books that starts in ancient Egypt and China and even if you are curious about books and know quite a bit of the history I guarantee you will find new and delightful factoids, from the proper way to cut a papyrus stem to create a usable sheet to how Holy Roman Emperor Frederik II banned paper because he saw it as a horrible Muslim invention. We are introduced to typesetting technology and lithography, and how books are stitched and formed (have you noticed that hard-cover books are concave in the front? I had not!) And nary a whine about the upcoming death of books in favor f electronic media. A delight.
FT's Books 