Library

This book traces the evolution of written text, the development of commercial activity around it, and the eventual (extremely recent) emergence of modern libraries. For those unfamiliar with the book industry these chapters will be especially illuminating, and the dominance of a subscription model for libraries until quite recently was fascinating. The book is more Western-focused than I'd like, with strangely little coverage of libraries under the Ottoman Empire or in Asia more broadly. Overall, however, this is an incredible view into the forces that led to the creation of modern libraries and just how fragile those institutions can be. Highly recommend.

Brief observations: In general, this book is both intriguing and intellectually challenging. A few chapters may have a quite sluggish pace. The work is ambitious and aims to comprehensively address a wide range of topics, presenting those topics in a somewhat logical manner. phrazle.co

Quick impressions: Overall, this is an interesting but also dense book. Some chapters can be a bit slow. It is an ambitious work that strives to cover a lot of ground, and it does so in a relatively coherent way.

(Full review with reading notes on my blog soon.)