I've enjoyed several "biographies of things", including a few by Petroski himself, so I was glad to get this fair-condition ex-library hardcover from Better World Books. It's about the evolution of the book, from scroll to hand-lettered and wood-bound vellum to printed paper - and, with the changes to the form of the book came changes to book shelves as well, something I'd never given much thought to! There are illustrations, some of them from very old woodcuts and paintings, in which the background detail turned out to reveal how people stored their books through the ages.

The book opens with the author and a visitor talking about the groupings of books on the author's shelves, and what a choice of categorization might say about him - but the author noted that the form of the bookshelves themselves did not seem to be part of the equation, sparking the idea for this book. [I'm not sure that this is universal; while I'm more interested in the books than the shelves, I might find my attention caught by exceptionally handsome and roomy shelves vs. rickety, crowded ones. Then again, as an avid BookCrosser, I have books in stacks and boxes all over the floor, in addition to the ones filling my shelves. Imagine my delight when reaching the chapter called "Bookstack Engineering"! Turns out they didn't mean literal stacks, but it cleared up the use of the term "stacks" in libraries.]

Among the tidbits I got from this book: Samuel Pepys, famed for his diaries, had his personal library bound to match, and arranged the books by height - an interesting concept that makes for a more regular impression of the bookcases overall, but might make it tricky to find a particular volume without memorizing the whole library. Or keeping a directory, of course.

There's an appendix called "Order, Order" which suggests different methods of arranging one's books, with the pros and cons of each. This bit alone could be worth reading the book - not to mention making a dandy topic of discussion at BookCrossing meetups!

I'm adding this book to MaryZee's Bookish bookbox, which I plan to hand off to eponine38 on Friday. Hope someone enjoys the book!

This book came home in my Bookish bookbox yesterday. This is one I won't be reading, since I read this book a couple of years ago and can highly recommend it. Thanks for playing, GoryD!

This book has not been rated.
Sadly, MaryZee passed suddenly in September 2012. MaryZee's daughter is now ready to rehome her mom's books and I was willing to collect and redistribute them to keep her literary legacy alive.

MaryZee had a lot of books on her BC shelves when she passed. I am planning on sharing most of them with other locals. But I am hanging on to a few that might be more appropriate for other distribution methods. From the looks of it, this might be a good fit if I revive the Bookish Book Box.

This book is part of the Bookish Book Box being circulated in memory of MaryZee, who was a passionate Bookcrosser and sadly died in September 2012. Hopefully it will cross the path of someone who will enjoy it.

Any future reader or recipient of this book is encouraged to leave a journal entry here on the BookCrossing site to let prior readers know the fate of the book. You can make an anonymous entry without joining the BookCrossing movement, but if you are interested in joining, it is a free and spam-free community where your contact information is not shared with others. Best of all, members receive private messages via e-mail from books like this one when those books are journaled, allowing for long-term relationships between books and readers.

A book about books + a biography of things? How can I resist?
Thanks Gory for sharing and 6of8 for reviving the bookbox. It's one of my favorites.
(And no, this book is not traveling to Australia.)

I found especially interesting the early history of books and bookcases, but then the author goes into detail about the construction of bookcases in modern libraries, and it was boring, until, to my surprise, things get interesting with the appendix when he talked about way more ways to organize a bookshelf than I ever imagined.

What better book than this to go into the Books about Books bookbox?

This looks great---I'm glad it came my way via the Bookish Bookbox!

I wanted to enjoy this book more than I did, but it seemed that for every one interesting bit, there were ten extreme yawners. I think it's possible for an author to give us tooo much information on a subject, and this author is guilty of just that. He gave so much detail on several subjects that they quickly went from intriguing to very dull.

Still, there was quite a lot to think about! I still struggle with the idea that books were stored with the spine in for so many centuries. All the reasons for storing books any way but spine out are just so nonsensical to me. It's hard to believe the space-saving way took so long to catch on!

I thought the Ramelli wheel was genius and it would not be impractical to set a desk beside for scholarly use.

I also did not realize that books weren’t purchased bound in the 17th c. No wonder books were so valued and difficult for the average laborer to afford very many.

Some of the stories about the different ways elite people treated books were pretty disgusting (Humphrey Davy ripping out pages as he read, using books as placemats, etc.). Such a waste to treat books badly---I was always taught to be careful with my books and was grounded from them if I didn't.

I'll be saving this to put back into the Biography of Books box if it comes back round.

Releasing into the Bookish Bookbox.

To the finder of this book:

This book is gift, no strings attached, from me to you. You may keep it forever, pass it along to a friend, or release it into the wild to be found by someone else.

If you are new to BookCrossing, welcome! Enjoy the site, the book, and the BookCrossing community. I hope you'll join us...it's free! If you do, please consider using me, elizardbreath, as your referring member. You can even remain anonymous if you wish!

I hope you'll make a brief journal entry so all the previous and future readers can track this book's journey.

Thanks, and Happy BookCrossing! :)

Found in the Bookish / Books about Books bookbox! Releasing back into the box.

Choosing this from the bookbox.