by Matthew Battles
An interesting short history of the idea of the library. Quite superficial really but a fun read. Special emphasis on destuction of books and libraries.
I think Battles would be the guy in the office party (probably a spouse) who corners everyone who stands still so he can lecture at them. He's from the local university, and he sincerely thinks you're interested. You wish you were because the topic is interesting enough and you have plenty of things...
I don't know much about the history of libraries, but this felt like a good overview. The focus is on Western libraries, but I also learned about Eastern libraries. I had no idea that the China had the precursor to the printing press long before Gutenberg. The book starts with ancient libraries...
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