The Book on the Bookshelf by Henry Petroski

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The Book on the Bookshelf by Henry Petroski

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The Book on the Bookshelf by Henry Petroski

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 that our books are vertical on our shelves with the spines facing out, but Henry Petroski, inveterately curious engineer, didn't.  As a result, readers are guided along the astonishing evolution from papyrus scrolls boxed at Alexandria to upright books shelved at the Library of Congress. Unimpeachably researched, enviably written, and charmed with anecdotes from Seneca to Samuel Pepys to a nineteenth-century bibliophile who had to climb over his books to get into bed, The Book on the Bookshelf is indispensable for anyone who loves books.

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Henry Petroski is the Aleksandar S. Vesic Professor of Civil Engineering and a professor of history at Duke University. The author of more than a dozen previous books, he lives in Durham, North Carolina, and Arrowsic, Maine.
SKU Unavailable
ISBN 13 9780375706394
ISBN 10 0375706399
Title The Book on the Bookshelf
Author Henry Petroski
Condition Unavailable
Binding Type Paperback
Publisher Random House USA Inc
Year published 2000-09-12
Number of pages 304
Cover note Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.