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Original Essays | April 29, 2013

Edward Lee: IMG How to Clarify Butter: A Writer's Tale

2 comments By Edward Lee

Chefs don't have time to write. While I was working on Smoke and Pickles, I was running a restaurant — a daily regimen of testing recipes,... Continue »
  1. $20.97 Sale Hardcover add to wish list

    Smoke and Pickles: Recipes and Stories from a New Southern Kitchen

    Edward Lee 9781579654924
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The Book on the Bookshelf

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The Book on the Bookshelf Cover

 

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

From 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.

Synopsis:

Tracing the evolution of the book and its companion, the bookshelf, an intriguing study ranges from the scrolls of antiquity to the modern-day volume, explaining how the art of book storage evolved, and discusses such topics as libraries, bookselling, book collection, and book buying throughout history. Reprint. 30,000 first printing.
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About the Author

\Henry Petroski is the Alexander S.Vesic Professor of Engineering and Professor of History at Duke University, where he also serves as chairman of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. He lives in Durham, North Carolina.
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Table of Contents

1. Books on bookshelves — 2. From scrolls to codices — 3. Chests, cloisters, and carrels — 4. Chained to the desk — 5. Press of books — 6. Studying studies — 7. Up against the wall — 8. Books and bookshops — 9. Bookstack engineering — 10. Shelves that move — 11. Care of books.

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Product Details

ISBN:
9780307773289
Publisher:
Vintage Books
Subject:
Literary Criticism : Books & Reading
Author:
Petroski, Henry
Subject:
Bookbinding
Subject:
History
Subject:
Library & Information Science
Subject:
Books & Reading
Subject:
General
Subject:
Library & Information Science - General
Subject:
Engineering-General Engineering
Subject:
Literary Criticism : General
Subject:
Reference-Books on Books
Subject:
History of Science-General
Subject:
main_subject
Subject:
all_subjects
Publication Date:
1999
Binding:
ELECTRONIC
Language:
English
Pages:
304
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Related Subjects

Hobbies, Crafts, and Leisure » Crafts » Furniture » Making
Hobbies, Crafts, and Leisure » Crafts » General
Humanities » Literary Criticism » General
Reference » Bibliography and Library Science

The Book on the Bookshelf
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Product details 304 pages Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group - English 9780307773289 Reviews:
"Synopsis" by , Tracing the evolution of the book and its companion, the bookshelf, an intriguing study ranges from the scrolls of antiquity to the modern-day volume, explaining how the art of book storage evolved, and discusses such topics as libraries, bookselling, book collection, and book buying throughout history. Reprint. 30,000 first printing.
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