Hardcover edition of The Book: A Cover-To-Cover Exploration of The Most Powerful Object of Our Time by Keith Houston. This item is in a very good condition with only a couple of small marks to the cover as pictured. In The Book, Keith Houston reveals that the paper, ink, thread, glue and board from which a book is made tell as rich a story as the words on its pages-of civilisations, empires, human ingenuity and madness. In an invitingly tactile history of this 2,000 year-old medium, Houston follows the development of writing, printing, the art of illustrations, and binding to show how we have moved from cuneiform tablets and papyrus scrolls to the hardcovers and paperbacks of today. Sure to delight book lovers of all stripes with its lush, full-colour illustrations, The Book gives us the momentous and surprising history behind humanity's most important-and universal-information technology. Praise for Shady Characters: "Punctuation is not a mere ornament or a curiosity-it is essential