First sentence:"When I first went to work in Harvard's Widener Library, I immediately made my first mistake: I tried to read the books."
Description:
"Throughout the ages, libraries have not only accumulated and preserved but also shaped, inspired, and obliterated knowledge. Matthew Battles, a rare books librarian and a gift narrator, 'entertainingly traces the evolution of the library through the centuries,' [New York Times Book Review] from Boston to Baghdad, from classical scriptoria to medieval monasteries, from the Vatican to the British library, from socialist reading rooms and rural home libraries to the Information Age." -- from the back cover
My thoughts:
I enjoyed this engaging book about libraries, books, writing and knowledge. I liked learning about how writing on bamboo stalks influenced the look of Asian writing and how Antonio Panizzi changed the card catalog "...from an inventory to an instrument of discovery" [p. 130].
Date read: 3/3/2011
Book #: 9Challenge: Dewey Decimal Challenge 2011
Rating: 3*/5 = goodGenre: nonfiction
ISBN-10: 093325644
ISBN-13: 9780393325645
Publisher: W.W. NortonYear: 2003
# of pages: 214Binding: Trade Paperback
LibraryThing page
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