The Book On the Book Shelf

by Henry Petroski

Book Overview

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... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0965004554
• ISBN13: 9780965004558
• Release Date: January 1999
• Publisher: Alfred A Knopf
• Length: 290 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.

Customer Reviews

You will never look at a bookshelf or library the same way again

Who thinks of bookshelves? No one, unless you need to shelve some books, and even then it seems `pretty obvious'. Well, think again. Henry Petroski, a professor of both Civil Engineering and History at Duke University, has written an amazing study of both the book and booksehelf. Did you know that for much of history, books were shelved spine in, instead of spine outwards, as they are shelved today? Did you know that many large libraries have tall, slender widows for a reason? Did you know that in many older libraries, like the Library of Congess, the bookcases, called bookstacks in this case, actually hold up the floors ceilings and people, as well as the books? The building is nothing more than a hollow box built around the bookstacks. Did you know that libraries should be built much stronger than most buildings, because the weight of the books would destroy many `normal' buildings? This and much other interesting information can be found in "The Book on the Bookshelf". Much of the information is not well known, even by librarians. For example, Clearwater Florida had to remove most of their books from the main library a few years ago when a visitor noticed that they had converted a department store to a library. He calculated that the weight of the books on the upper floors should have been enough to collapse the building. They investigated and sure enough found cracks. They quickly removed most of the books, and set about designing a new library. After reading this volume, you will never look at a library, bookshelf, or even a book the same way again. I have read this book several times, and find new meaning and information each time. Probably his best work. Highly recommended.

"So many books,but so little time" the saying goes.How about,"So many books, so little space"?

If you love books,a little or a lot,you'll fall in love with this excellent book about books,by an engineer,no less.I have a personal library of over 7,000 books,am also an engineer,and was surprised to find "A Book About Books" written by an engineer.I have quite a number of books on this subject,which I choose to call "Book Books". These books, all deal with books in one way or another,but this one tends to emphasize the placement of books on some sort of shelf;but the author does not limit himself to that alone. He covers books and the way and how they have been been constructed over the ages and how they came to be stored,whether it was only a couple of manuscripts by some solitary monk in a monestary,some exclusive collection by a nobelman, libraries where they were chained,huge ancient or modern great world libraries;and even private libraries ,large or small by readers of great wealth or humble means. The author shows that there is one thing in common with all collections ,big or small,rare or common;books have to be put somewhere.While the author goes into considerable detail about how books have been constructed and shows how the shelves or whatever they were stored on;he shows how the shelving was adapted to accomodate them. He covers the personal libraries but also covers the engineering and architecture of the shelving and structures built to house the world's massive collections.One should not be scared away from this book,thinking that it is too involved or technical;because it isn't at all.The author covers so much ground ,that rather than overly complicated,it simply becomes interesting. One thing for sure is, that after reading this book,one will never look at books and how they are arranged or stored ,in the same way again.This is the case whether one is enterind a famous library,your local library,a bookstore, small and down some side street,a modern big-box bookstore,an old barn bookstore,a persons library,or one of my favorite things to do which is to get out a magnifying glass and read the titles of the books on bookshelves behind photographs of people in books,magazines or newspapers.Not surprising ,when an article appears on a personality with a photo,they often choose to show that person in their favorite spot, which is often at a desk or chair with books in the background. Just a couple of days ago there was an article about a top Canadian author in the Toronto Star,Peter Newman,in his favorite chair surrounded by books.What fun to see what books he keeps on his bookshelf. This book has an extensive appendix "Order,Order" discussing the ways to arrange books on one's shelves,which is very helpful or at least interesting.Personally,of all the wasys covered,I guess I employ most of them to one extent or another.The author also includes an appendix on "Notes" where he gives references to all the quotes in the book,chapter by chapter.An extensive Bibliography and Index makes the book a valuable and useful resource. The

Fun fun fun

Not only fun, but informative. Anyone that is into books, shelves or a combination of the two, needs this one. The only problem is it is one of those books that goes by to fast. The end comes to soon. Oh well, that's life.

The co-evolution of artifacts

We may think that how books are stored is a mundane topic. But Petroski shows how both the book and its means of storage co-evolved, with features we take for granted about books (e.g., labels on spines, or titles) being in part due to the need to store them in growing numbers. It was fun to have an engineer's perspective on this issue, though his overall scholarship is impressive. There is something new and interesting here for all but the most specialized readers.