Welcome to Litsy!

I was hoping for a bit more from this one, really. There are some interesting bits, but it's more of the same sort of lecture I feel I've read elsewhere. I was more interested in the stuff about understanding books as objects and how people used them, and it was more about the fact that reading isn't dead. Well, duh?? I'm READING this, aren't I?

I am definitely an altruistic polygamist.

Such a cool book about books! Not the content of a book, but what a book actually is and how the concept of reading has evolved. Very interesting and fun to read.

It likely goes without saying I enjoyed this fascinating, albeit on occasion dry, look at books (as objects) & reading (as an activity). Exploring everything from how we read to the medical benefits, or medical problems, from reading Price discusses, as the cover says, the history & future of reading. Books, & those who write, sell, & read them, have long been disrupters & innovators & this book offers a fascinating glimpse into that world.

🤨

“...novels were forbidden to under-sixteens.”

So interesting...Sorry for all the posts...it‘s just all so interesting and more than occasionally Really?!? What?!? Wow!

On the health hazards of reading...according to doctors in the 17th and 18th centuries.

So many interesting things to think about it terms of books as objects and reading as an activity...

Readers beware...”some people cannot stand very exciting or thrilling stories...”

Swear off novels?!?

😂

Seriously, some strong opinions about the whole buy vs. borrow debate. Contests even...

The ongoing debate of borrow vs. buy...a matter worth commenting on by Jane Austen way back in the day.

Going with nonfiction and a hot cup of tea this morning. Learning all sorts of interesting things such as books were the “first consumer goods marketed specifically as gifts” and this was happening by the nineteenth century! Anticipating a fascinating read.

Ohhh, there is nothing better than getting a new book EXCEPT, perhaps, getting a book about books!!! One of my friends and I always, without exception, exchange books for all the important occasions—holidays, birthdays, any reason at all. Once again, she has gifted me with what looks to be a very interesting book. Can‘t wait to read it!

Some interesting bits here, though it felt somewhat disjointed and rambling. Big ideas: difference between books and texts; readers have not changed much over the centuries despite shifting technologies; where we read and get our reading material matters as much as (or more than) what and how we read.

I loathed the “lay flat” section‘s format, by the bye.

Is anyone else bothered by the transition from “small-town child” to “cradled the book as tenderly as a lover‘s body”?

The idea of the book vending machine is not new at all.

Also, #TIL: 52 libraries opened in the London Underground during the Blitz of 1940-1941, when the Underground was used for bomb shelter.

I‘m amused by the pejorative words for book borrowers.

Today‘s library #bookhaul - and all #nfnovember too. Hopefully they‘re quick reads, because they all look good.

A cool non fiction about books and how they are different from stories. The history of books and how people read and how it has been seen through time.

English professor Leah Price turns our common conceptions about the health and history of the book on its head in this concentrated examination of how we‘ve thought of books and reading through time. I particularly enjoyed her chapters on biblio-therapy and book activism. It did feel a bit rangy and scattered to me—but full of fascinating facts about books to ponder!

I enjoyed it, though I will say you have to be pretty interested in book history for it to be a good fit. Price presents some fresh perspectives on book history and our current print zeitgeist that are thought provoking for modern book activists.

The contents of this book would normally be very interesting to me but honestly, 224 pages of it got a bit dull. Too much of a good thing. I should have broke it down into much smaller reading segments.

Here is the gist of this delightful book:
Our ancestors were as lazy, unfocused and inattentive readers as we are: stop blaming technology😁

Reading a review of the tagged book in The New Yorker. The idea that our current interaction with books should not be nostalgic or as a bunker to stave off the digital onslaught but as a way to “have words with one another” the important thing is the “interactions through which we get our hands on books” as well as those that “awaken a desire for them”... so basically Litsy!!!🤣🤓🤔 Community Goals. Happy Sunday Littens!

Good reading spot today

I enjoyed this while at the same time feeling like something was missing.
It never fully capture my attention but was filled with interesting information about the history of books as physical objects.
The narration was solid but somehow I still found my mind wandering to other things.
I plan on reading it again in the future because it could just be my headspace at the moment.

Oh my goodness - what a title! Shouldn‘t this be stacked by every Litten! Out today if you‘re interested..l can‘t believe there isn‘t a Litsy post about it yet ( my first port of call when I see something new and wanna get a feel for it!)