Keith HoustonCritiques

It was interesting to see how the various punctuation marks developedor, as was often the case, failed to cath on. Fpund the "sarcasm mark" section interesting in particular, as it's strange to thing how social media is altering language

One word for this book: Enlightening.

I’ve been meaning to read this for a long time, even before I picked up Houston’s Shady Characters a few years ago. Although I had more fun reading that one, I’m glad I finally got to this meticulously researched history of books.
This book has everything—every little detail about the history of the book. There are nearly 80 pages dedicated to the origin and development of paper, from papyrus to parchment to paper in its various forms. So many interesting facts, and I fear many of them will fall out of my head. For some reason the one that springs to mind as I write this is that paper used to be made from old rags. Weird, right?
So besides all the stuff about paper, there’s a lot on the evolution of writing, from cuneiform to typesetting; the history of illustration in books; and the structure of books, from scrolls to codex.
One of my favorite chapters was “Ties That Bind: binding the paged book.” It was neat, because I could look at the book in my hand and see what he was describing, even when he was talking about techniques dating back 1,000 years. So even though in some respects I wish I’d had this on kindle so I could have highlighted, I’m glad I had the hardcover. And not only so I could study the binding—the design of the book is really cool. Every part is labeled like it’s in a diagram, it has a nifty cover, and the page color and font (11 point Adobe Jenson Pro Light, if you must know) are easy on the eyes.
It really is lovely.

I don’t even know where to start with how much I loved this book. I haven’t crushed so hard on a writer since my brother-in-law force-lent me A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again.
With 68 pages of endnotes, his writing brings to mind the journal articles I have to read for grad school, but unlike the dry majority of these offerings, Houston’s scholarly writing is incredibly fun to read.
I smiled so much as I read this. I wish I’d read it on my kindle, because there would have been loads of highlighted passages to share. My comments below have some of my favorite quotations I noted as I progressed through the book.
Without Houston’s clever, friendly style, this still would have been a fascinating book, using specific symbols and marks to trace the evolution of the written word. His writing made it a delight.

The Book: A Cover-to-Cover Exploration of the Most Powerful Object of Our Time was well written and enjoyable. It focused on how cultures started writing and the tools and materials used to write.
I was a bit disappointed in it. Based on the cover, I had expected it would discuss the technical aspects of books and how they are used. For example, when did books start using titles, page numbers, footnotes, tables of contents, etc.? I also wanted a glossary describing the parts of a book (cover, binding, hinge, fore-edge, endpapers half title, etc.). My expectation was this would be a reference book, not just prose.

Keith Houston doesn't skip the details in his exploration of the history of the physical book as we know it today. He covers it all. In reading it, you will discover how we came to have the paper we use; the texts and ink; the illustrations; and the shape and sizes that are both common and not.

The book itself, as you read, is a lesson as well. Every introduction of a new element is clearly labeled, and he dives into murky waters to find where each one begins. Sometimes there are no clear answers. Sometimes there seem to be, but wait...not so fast! He points out where seemingly settled matters veer off into myth. Facts may be hard to nail down, but the stories are entertaining.

My only complaint was that so much space was given to processes that I sometimes became lost. I do not fault Houston for this, I have always had problems following formulas and directions. My knowledge of engineering is quite shallow. But I enjoyed it all the same and recommend it to anyone who cares deeply about books.

I have to start by saying this poor book was an innocent bystander to the just-completed 2017 BookLikes-opoly game. That is the only reason it took me 2.5 months to read it; it certainly wasn't due to any shortcomings on the part of the subject or writing itself.

The Book is exactly what it says it is on the cover: a history of every physical aspect of the book as we know it today; from the creation of the writing surface (clay, wax, papyrus, parchment, paper) to the development of writing itself, the process of putting one on the other, and the evolution of the useable and practical units (scrolls, codices, etc.) of collection. Each part of what makes up the book is labeled, as can be seen on the cover itself. No part is ever labeled more than once so it doesn't become tedious.

Far from being the dry, academic dissertation my description makes it sound like, The Book is really well written and very easy reading. The author is knowledgeable and just relaxed enough and funny enough to remind you of a really good, relatable professor whose lectures you never mind attending. Enjoyable enough, even, that a few dropped articles from the text weren't quite enough for me to ding my rating. For those academically minded, there are very comprehensive notes and bibliography sections at the back.

I have the hardcover edition of this and it is beautiful. As close as you can come, I imagine, to a handmade book on a mass market scale. My only quibble is that in the spirit of showing the reader what a book is made of, the covers are left as the raw fibreboard; it looks nice but it's not going to be durable unless care is taken with the corners. I intend to take care, but still, I half wish they'd at least varnished the boards as a way of reinforcing those delicate corners.

If you not only love books for the stories they contain, but for the physical objects that they are, and you enjoy a bit of history, this book might be one for your permanent collection and it's very much worth having the physical hardcover edition - just make sure to watch those corners.

This was great! From Cicero to ARPAnet and more, Houston covers the history of punctuation with knowledge and humor. Definitely recommended.

If you have any interest in books as books, i.e. as a physical object, then The Book is the book for you. Weaving together the histories of paper, writing, illustration, printing, and book binding Houston delivers an epic tale that explains the cultures, individuals, and occasional humorous incidents that lead to the development of the object that changed the world. He also manages to use The Book itself as a practical exhibit in describing the technical aspects of how a book is made and why its design has remained essentially unchanged for millennia. An essential read for any bibliophile.

Well-researched, well-written account of (for the most part) how some obscure punctuation marks developed in form over time (rather than slanted toward usage, say, although any history is necessarily going to touch on that). I'm not sure how much of the information will stay with me, but it was entertaining to read about at the time.

(Note: 5 stars = amazing, wonderful, 4 = very good book, 3 = decent read, 2 = disappointing, 1 = awful, just awful. I'm fairly good at picking for myself so end up with a lot of 4s). I feel a lot of readers automatically render any book they enjoy 5, but I grade on a curve!

A snack-fest of history and typography, the book is divided into stand-alone chapters about the pilcrow, the interrobang, the octothorpe, the ampersand, the @ symbol, the asterisk and dagger, the hyphen, the dash, the manicule, quotation marks, and the various attempts to create irony marks. Some have become part of the character set of modern written language, while others have faded, especially the various attempts at the irony mark. The only irony mark that has survived is from the set of emoticons ;).

There is some repetition, because as the author suggests in the beginning, each chapter can be read separately from the others. I found the chapter about the octothorpe # (otherwise known as the pound sign, the hash mark, the number sign, and the hashtag) particularly fascinating. Its history is intertwined with the Latin words libra and pondo, from which sprang the weight symbol lb. and the weight and monetary unit "pound." In fact, the hash mark was created from an elided variant of the "lb." abbreviation.

Very entertaining if at times slow going.

A quick fun read, most geared to the the general reader (like me, I'm interested in language, gammar,fonts and such, just not obsessed or pedantic about it). A good break of non-fiction.

This is a book about books - including the history and development of writing, ink, writing surfaces (papyrus, parchment, paper), printing, illustrations, illuminations, binding and general book manufacture. This book contains a great deal of information presented in digestible chunks, with amusing observations thrown in, though it does tend to be somewhat repetitious. This is no doubt partly an effect of the structure of the book in four parts [(1) The Page; (2) The Text; (3) Illustrations; and (4) Form], which lead to some jumping back and forth in time. Houston relays many stories that include social history, cultural history, accidental discoveries, and biographical details of the people that had a hand in the eventual production of the printed book. The writing style is fairly digestible with some attention given to printing and binding details. This book would provide an agreeable summary and introductory text to the history of the book from ancient times to the current technological era.

Keith Houston writes a history of a selection of punctuation and typographic marks including the asterisk, the @ sign, and the interrobang. Teasing out not only the origins of where these marks came from, Houston also traces the various purposes the marks have served over their lifetime. What could be a potentially dry history, Houston imbues with plenty of wit, which makes for entertaining reading. Easy to read straight through or dip in and out of as desired. Recommended if you enjoy books about words, grammar, and/or punctuation.

I found this book to be good fun; it's a survey of the history of a variety of punctuation marks, some very well known, some not so. What surprised and informed me is the ancient history of some of these marks. The author does a superb job of not only describing, but actually *showing* ancient examples of the marks, and how they evolved. Highly recommended.

Not the nerdiest book I've read (that honor goes to The Secret Life of Pronouns), but it's up there. This is such a fascinating way to look at history. Technology, culture, beliefs, tradition, and the simple passage of time affect us in huge ways, but even the tiniest aspects of our lives can leave their mark and give us insight into what's important to us as human beings.

So, lots of cool things to learn from this book. And I'm now firmly in the "bring back the interrobang!" camp.

Between pick and so-so. This book is divided into four sections in the development of the modern book- writing, writing surfaces, printing and binding. Because of this structure, there is a lot of jumping back and forth in time, but the development of the book is probably not a straight line anyway. One thing I particularly liked was more in-depth information on the Chinese inventions that greatly influenced the modern book.

Fascinating, well-written, and nicely designed exploration into the varied histories of the main aspects of what makes a book, a book. Materials to write on (the march from papyrus to parchment to paper), the development of text (from hieroglyphics and cuneiform to mechanical and photo-mechanical typesetting machines), the parallel development of printing techniques as required for non-type elements such as illustrations (from woodcut via copper plate up to offset lithography) and the physical form of pages and bookbinding.

Of necessity, the author jumps about a bit (chronologically and geographically) but his reasons for doing so are clear and it doesn't result in a messy tangle as it easily could have done. Also, I don't think I was distracted by a single typo throughout.

(The only drop of half a star is, ironically, for one aspect of the physical form of the thing: the bare, uncovered boards of the cover are already softening and fraying at the corners. For this reason I've ordered some brass book corner protectors, which I intend – when they arrive – to affix for strengthening. This will be apt, I think, as it will impart a little personalization and craftsmanship befitting the subject's history.)½

Fascinating analysis of all technological aspects of book production and how we came to the modern book's form & function

Started strong and while interesting, not terrifically gripping. Easily put down and picked up so good reading when there's lots of interruptions.

I'm a typography nerd, so a book about the history of punctuation would have appealed to me, regardless. However, Keith Houston's work stands out because his research is extremely thorough (including debunking several widespread myths about the origins of various symbols) and because of his witty and engaging writing style.

If you have a passing interest in the topic, this book is worth picking up. If you have a deep interest in the topic, you will find this book to be a rare gem.

The Book, which is a complete over view of the book from it's earliest stages to what we find today. This includes the history of the earliest stages of writing, paper making, inks, type setting, and finally binding. Its well researched and through overview. Many the sections go into great detail. But for me there isn't enough information. I want to understand the evolution of type faces. There isn't much on modern printing and book making innovations of the last couple of decades. And their is no discussion about the future of book making; for a 2016 book in a world of ebooks and audiobooks this seems like a big oversight. I read this book ironically enough on a Kindle so a discussion about the this new form of book making would have been a nice addition.

A cool feature of this book, even included in the ebook version I read, is that throughout the text there are side notes on various components like: headers,titles, footnotes, bullets, margins, etc. I actually learned a lot just from these side notes.

If you enjoy book history and/or discussions of the book as object, you should definitely pick up this book. Divided into four sections (the page, the text, illustrations, and form), Houston explores the history of the book from its early roots to its current form. He covers thousands of years of history with thoroughly enjoyable writing and occasional dashes of humour that had me laughing out loud. The book is also a gorgeous object on its own (I highly recommend picking this one up in hardcover), with lovely high quality paper and, as evidenced from the annotations on the cover, it also highlights the technical terms for the content in a fun way. Solidly recommended if you enjoy the subject.

I judged this book by its cover. That is, I bought it because of its cover. The large explanatory brackets illustrating parts of the book: "title"; "head"; "fore-edge"; "hinge"; et cetera. This continues inside the book as well. There are numerous illustrations, most of them in color, which is rare for most books. It is put together well, it is pretty.

It is also breezingly written. It is fun, it is interesting. The history of paper, scrolls, codices, printing, ink, movable type, and so forth. If you enjoy the history of the book, this book will not disappoint.

There are citations, which is nice. Almost everything is sourced to secondary sources, though many of them are to web site URLs, which is a bit odd. In a book about the history and importance of books. One thing bugged me, at the end. "...Secretary of State Herbert Hoover's personal letter paper..." (p. 327). Herbert Hoover was never Secretary of State. In 1921, he was newly appointed Secretary of Commerce. If such a minor, but glaring, error can creep into Houston's text, it makes me wonder and doubt many of the facts that preceded the error. Oops.

The Book: A Cover-to-Cover Exploration of the Most Powerful Object of Our Time by Keith Houston is for book worms, book nerds and book lovers alike. It explores the history of the page (often paper) the text, illustrations and form. Some I was already familiar with like the making of paper but there were oodles of facts in history that I had not seen before. There is a section about Marco Polo coming to Chengdu China and being intrigued with the idea of paper money. Also an attempt to prevent forgery by putting the message that people would attempt forgery will be beheaded.

Each of the four sections of this book lead you journeys through history where you learn the complicated processes of making paper and the quest of the perfect materials for paper. Marco Polo was intrigued by the concept of paper money which was already being used in Chengdu when he visited it. It of course made for a much lighter load for the traveling merchants than heavy coins.

I was delighted to know that one of the books that my father gave me when I was twelve was a copy of the of most expensive book ever sold. I enjoyed learning about woodcuts, lithography and other methods for illustration. Since my father's grandfather illustrated children's books with those methods I was thrilled to learn the processes.

There is something for everyone in The Book, those were just a few things that popped out at me.

I highly recommend The Book for anyone wanting to know the history, process and developement of book making.