The Book on the BookshelfFrom the author of the highly praised The Pencil and The Evolution of Useful Things comes another captivating history of the seemingly mundane: the book and its storage. Most of us take for granted that our books are vertical on our shelves with the spines facing out, but Henry Petroski, inveterately curious engineer, didn't. As a result, readers are guided along the astonishing evolution from papyrus scrolls boxed at Alexandria to upright books shelved at the Library of Congress. Unimpeachably researched, enviably written, and charmed with anecdotes from Seneca to Samuel Pepys to a nineteenth-century bibliophile who had to climb over his books to get into bed, The Book on the Bookshelf is indispensable for anyone who loves books. |
Contents
From Scrolls to Codices | 24 |
Chests Cloisters and Carrels | 40 |
Chained to the Desk | 55 |
The Press of Books | 74 |
Studying Studies | 100 |
Up Against the Wall | 129 |
Books and Bookshops | 146 |
Bookstack Engineering | 167 |
IO Shelves That Move | 192 |
The Care of Books | 215 |
Order Order | 233 |
Notes | 253 |
Bibliography | 269 |
Illustrations | 279 |
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Common terms and phrases
according Agostino Ramelli aisle American Library Association appears armaria armarium arranged binding Bodleian Bodleian Library book chest book presses book storage book's bookbinding bookcases bookends bookshelves bookstacks bookstores British Museum carrels catalog ceiling century Chained Library cloister codex codices collection compact shelving course cover desk Dewey door dust edge engineering facing fact feet fitted fore-edge front gallery Hereford Cathedral hold horizontal ibid inches installed Jerome keep ladder lectern librarian library building Library of Congress located look manuscripts medieval Melvil Dewey modern monasteries natural light Nicholson Baker painted paperbacks papyrus Pepys Pepys Library pile printed problem Ramelli readers Reading Room Richard de Bury Rider Samuel Pepys scholar scrolls shelf space shelve books side Snead & Company spine stacks stall system stored Streeter structure tion University vertical volumes wall Wren Library