I read a lot of books about the evolution of textual production: books about the making of books. Though I own far more books on typography and lettering, books are where typography goes to work.
Currently, I’m reading Keith Houston’s The Book. I want to order Houston’s Shady Characters to read, too. I enjoy his writing style. (Amazon: The Book: A Cover-to-Cover Exploration of the Most Powerful Object of Our Time
What could be fascinating about the history of books? Why do I care?
Without books, we would not have the ability to transmit knowledge on a massive scale. From the early papyrus scrolls gathered in Egypt, Greece, and Rome to create the first libraries, books in their various forms allowed humans to share information with people they might never meet, across great distances and times.
Paper is an amazing technology. I’ve made paper in a class, using lint. That was a weird experience (and not one I’d repeat). My favorite papers contain a percentage of cotton-fiber and are archival quality, acid-free. Paper from wood pulp and cotton led to affordable books and cheap newspapers.
An ink that takes well to paper is also a miraculous bit of science. You need just the right combination of ink and paper for fine letter printing that doesn’t bleed into black blobs or stars.
Moveable type, lithography, phototypesetting, inkjet, and laser printing are used to create books. I love letterpress books — and they are still being produced for limited editions. Inkjets and lasers allow “print-on-demand” books. Getting letters into ink and then onto paper has changed a lot in the last century, a fast evolution from metal type to digital printing.
Some suggest books will go entirely digital — no printing involved. I doubt that.
Digital media have supplemented — not supplanted — physical books. Book lovers know that digital formats will come and go. Anyone who has old digital media about the house knows how transient digital formats can be. I have done my best to migrate my writings from computer to computer, application to application. I’ve also retained printed and handwritten copies of much of what I have written. What would happen to entire digital archives over time?
Books might not last forever; they do last for a century or more. Some have lasted centuries. It is interesting to me that digital books try to replicate the printed experience. The digital will always fall a bit short of turning pages.
Some books about books…
- Allan, Tony, & Polt, Richard F. H. (2015). Typewriter: the history, the machine, the writers. New York: Shelter Harbor Press.
- Bennett, Paul A., & Rogers, Bruce. (1963). Books and printing: a treasury for typophiles (1st Forum ed.). Cleveland: World Pub. Co.
- Dodd, Robin. (2006). From Gutenberg to open type: an illustrated history of type from the earliest letterforms to the latest digital fonts. Vancouver, WA: Hartley & Marks Publishers.
- Eisenstein, Elizabeth L. (2005). The printing revolution in early modern Europe (2nd ed.). Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press.
- Houston, Keith. (2016). The book: a cover-to-cover exploration of the most powerful object of our time (1st ed.). New York: W.W. Norton & Company.
- Loxley, Simon. (2013). Printer’s devil: the life and work of Frederic Warde (1st ed.). Boston: David R. Godine.
- Lyons, Martyn. (2011). Books: a living history. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum.