Henry Petroski. (2010). The Book on the Bookshelf. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.

Henry Petroski. 2010. The Book On the Bookshelf. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.

Henry Petroski, The Book On the Bookshelf. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2010.

Henry Petroski. The Book On the Bookshelf. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2010.

OverDrive Product Record

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1. • value: Essays
2. • value: gifts for readers
3. • value: birthday gifts for women
4. • value: 2018 books
5. • value: gifts for readers book lovers
6. • value: reading gifts
7. • value: book club favorites
8. • value: bookclub favorites
9. • value: book club lists
10. • value: books 2018
11. • value: best book club reads
12. • value: best book club books 2016
13. • value: best book club reads 2021
14. • value: book club best sellers 2020
15. • value: book club books recommendations 2017
16. • value: book club favorites 2019
17. • value: book club reading lists
18. • value: book club recommendations 2015
19. • value: book club recommendations 2016
20. • value: book of the month club books 2018
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22. • value: the book on the bookshelf

creators

1. • role: Author
   • fileAs: Petroski, Henry
   • bioText: Henry Petroski is the Alexander S.Vesic Professor of Engineering and Professor of History at Duke University, where he also serves as chairman of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. He lives in Durham, North Carolina.
   • name: Henry Petroski

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2010-12-01T00:00:00-05:00

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title

The Book on the Bookshelf

fullDescription

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.

reviews

1. • premium: False
   • source: The New York Times Book Review
   • content:

     "For anyone interested in the craft of reading, [this book] is a compulsive necessity."

2. • premium: False
   • source: Civilization
   • content: "A fascinating history of two related common objects, impeccably documented and beautifully illustrated."
3. • premium: False
   • source: Seattle Times
   • content: "After reading this book, you will not look at a book or a bookshelf in the same way."
4. • premium: False
   • source: Library Journal
   • content: "If 'God is in the details,' then those seeking God should read Petroski's books."
5. • premium: True
   • source:
   • content:

     August 30, 1999
     That bookshelves might harbor secret and enchanting lives is a thrilling prospect for any serious reader. What laws of human nature govern our sturdy cases of books? What damning quirks of character glare from a few casually stowed volumes? In this disappointing study, however, Petroski's effort to reveal the "evolution of the bookshelf as we know it" yields few rewards. Pondering the physics of the bookend and the genealogy of the library carrel, this Duke University scholar observes the bookshelf as a piece of the infrastructure undergirding our civilization. We learn that medieval books were chained to their shelves to prevent theft, and that beverage stains have plagued bibliophiles almost since the dawn of the printed word. Admirers of Petroski's earlier works (The Evolution of Useful Things, Remaking the World, etc.) will not be surprised by his exquisite research, or by the gusto with which he plunges into the dustiest of library bins. But the bookshelf proves a more oblique topic than bridges or even pencils, two of Petroski's other interests. The practical construction principles of bookshelves make for rather dull reading, and conjecture about lectern usage in the Middle Ages wears thin. This book is most successful when delving into the gritty aspects of engineering, whether it be the cantilevered forces of library book stacks or the architecture of the British Museum Reading Room. After lingering among such fusty stacks, readers will welcome the whimsical appendix, which proposes arranging one's books alphabetically by the author's first name, or even by the first word of the antepenultimate sentence.

popularity

50

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1. • value: Language Arts
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3. • value: Technology
4. • value: Nonfiction

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12/01/2010

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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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