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The Case For Books: Past, Present, And Future (2009)

by Robert Darnton(Favorite Author)

3.31 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

1586488260 (ISBN13: 9781586488260)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

PublicAffairs

review 1: I picked this up hoping to find a cousin of The Shallows by Nicholas Carr. It’s a collection of essays that turned out to be more waist-deep in the academic world than I anticipated (library acquisitions, rare books, etc). The writing was accessible and some interesting observations were made, but the content was more limited than I had hoped based on the title. Of chief concern is Google’s Book Search plan, which the author was intimately involved in as Director of the Harvard library.
review 2: The title was a bit misleading, since it barely covers the importance of books and the benefits of having a printed and bound version of something as opposed to a digital copy. Harold Bloom has done several interviews on this subjects that thoroughly expounds this... more issue in a MUCH better way. He did touch on some interesting developments (such as the Google Books lawsuit and Guttenberg-e, but a very disappointing read. less

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