The Case for Books: Past, Present, and Future

A Man Who Knows of What He Speaks.

This book was not on my radar at all, it caught my eye at the library while I was browsing. The main draw to pick this book up was it's mention of dealing with digitized books and their place in the modern era. I have just purchased a Barnes & Noble Nook and felt the philosophical implications of digitized literature deserved some looking into.
The book is essentially a collection of previously published magazine and trade publication articles by the author. They articles are catagorized into Past, Present and Future in the Case for Books. The author has a long carreer heading prominent libraries in the United States and is very well versed in the topic of books, both where they have come from and where they are going to.
The most appealing essays for me came in the future section. Those articles deal with Google Book Search and the viability and implications of digitizing books. The Present and Past sections deal heavily with the study of and 'science' of books and reading.
For the casual reader, a lot of the material maybe lost. The articles are not meant to entertain or enlighten so much. The articles serve more as they were published, to inform the book tradespeople. Librarians, publishes, authors, bibliographers and the like. That being said it is not totally inaccesable to thecommon reader and can be enjoyed to a degree to anyone who has a passing interest in the subject.

No text was provided for this review.

No text was provided for this review.

No text was provided for this review.

No text was provided for this review.