Book

Portable magic : a history of books and their readers / Emma Smith.

Smith, Emma (Emma Josephine), (author.).

Summary:

"Most of what we say about books is really about the words inside them: the rosy nostalgic glow for childhood reading, the lifetime companionship of a much-loved novel. But books are things as well as words, objects in our lives as well as worlds in our heads. And just as we crack their spines, loosen their leaves and write in their margins, so they disrupt and disorder us in turn. All books are, as Stephen King put it, 'a uniquely portable magic'. Here, Emma Smith shows us why"-- Provided by publisher.

Record details

ISBN: 9781524749095
ISBN: 1524749095
Physical Description: 337 pages ; 21 cm
Edition: First American edition.
Publisher: New York : Alfred A. Knopf, [2022]

Content descriptions

General Note:	"A Borzoi book" "Originally published in by Allen Lane, an imprint of Penguin Random House UK., in London in 2022."
Bibliography, etc. Note:	Includes bibliographical references and index (pages 315-337).
Formatted Contents Note:	Introduction: Magic books -- Beginnings: East, West and Gutenberg -- Queen Victoria in the trenches -- Christmas, gift books and abolition -- Shelfies: Anne, Marilyn and Madame de Pompadour -- Silent Spring and the making of a classic -- The Titanic and book traffic -- Religions of the book -- 10 May 1933: burning books -- Library books, camp, and malicious damage -- Censored books: '237 goddams, 58 bastards, 31 Chrissakes, and 1 fart' -- Mein Kampf : freedom to publish? -- Talismanic books -- Skin in thegame: book-binding and African-American poetry -- Choose Your Own Adventure: readers' work -- The empire writes back -- What is a book? -- Epilogue: Books and transformation.