So Many Books : Reading and Publishing in an Age of Abundance

By Gabriel Zaid

Book Overview

"Gabriel Zaid's defense of books is genuinely exhilarating. It is not pious, it is wise; and its wisdom is delivered with extraordinary lucidity and charm. This is how Montaigne would have written... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0954221788
• ISBN13: 9780954221782
• Release Date: January 2004
• Publisher: Sort of Books
• Length: 144 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 7.4" x 0.7" x 5.0"

Customer Reviews

For Writers to Think About

This is a short, worthwhile book. Zaid does a great job of separating romantic ideas of "immortal words" and how books and writers "ought" to be appreciated from what makes a book truly worthwhile. As a writer, I found this short book of essays relevant to my own ongoing questions about what publishing ought to do. It helped me better understand that the success of a book isn't so much about numbers of copies sold as about whether the book participates in a real conversation. Take Me With You When You Go

Wonderful meditations on the place and value of books

It's largely coincidental that I read this at the turn of the old and new year, but I may just make re-reading this thoughtful little book an annual event. Both elegant and wise, "So Many Books" is not simply a defense of the book as a medium. It's also, on a larger scale, a defense of reading, of those who choose (and, as the author notes, really know *how*) to read, and of the place of reading in inter-cultural and inter-generational "conversations."Gabriel Zaid looks at the economics of the publishing industry, and also the relative merits of books over both older (oral tradition, parchment) and newer (e-books, CD-ROMs) means of storing and exchanging information. He places reader, author, and individual book within a "constellation" of books in which ideas are exchanged. And he weaves "a hairshirt for masochistic authors" by showing how few books are read, preserved, or -- frankly -- even noticed by the reading public.But most of all, Zaid shows that books are nothing less than the cornerstone of the effort to define, preserve, and expand culture. The fact that there are so many books to read shouldn't depress us but, instead, excite us and make those of us committed to reading a bit more secure in what some no doubt consider our eccentricity. This is a title I hope to return to again and again.

Beautiful and astonishing

This beautifully written and translated book takes the reader down surprising paths, and delights on every page. A mature, serious, and erudite thinker, Zaid smoothly meshes his ideas about the purpose of books and of reading with a fresh and clear-eyed understanding of the business of producing books. This is a book you will want to share. Too bad more of his work has not been translated.