This book asks, "What is a book?" Celebrating books and reading, the book captures the value and magic of books felt by all voracious readers and is a perfect gift for book-lovers of all ages. A beautifully produced, small-format jacketed hardcover with simple illustrations that are whimsical yet humorous. A book to read. A book belongs in a library, on a bookshelf, in a bookshop, in your house. A story belongs wherever a story belongs. If it's Sunday and raining, a book is the perfect thing. Even a small book, because boredom can be very big. You can read a book while you walk, but you have to be careful not to bump into things.

From scrolls and sheets of papyrus to elaborate and expensive codices to the mass press-printed volumes as we know them today, books have come a long way since writing was first developed. Although digital technology has impacted how we consume information over the last few decades, book design has survived as a means of showcasing creativity and craftsmanship, as books remain important sources of inspiration, knowledge, and entertainment. A Book on Books showcases some of the best book design work from all over the world in celebrating the designers' contributions to preserving reading culture, as they continue to make books eye-catching and exciting to read or own. It also captures the voices of key influencers from publishing, printmaking, book fair organizing, and bookshop-owning standpoints, as they continue to play a crucial role in keeping the book-making industry alive and thriving even in the unknown future.

A wry exchange between an IT-savvy donkey, a book-loving ape and a mouse forms this very funny picture book that's perfect for both digital natives and book lovers. With a subversive and signature Lane Smith twist, this satisfying and perfectly executed picture book has something to say to children and adults alike about the importance and joy of reading.It's a Book is another bold and funny story from the creator of the CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal-winning There Is a Tribe of Kids, Lane Smith.

"For twenty-eight years, Pamela Paul has been keeping a diary that records the books she reads, rather than the life she leads. Or does it? Over time, it's become clear that this Book of Books, or Bob, as she calls him, tells a much bigger story. For Paul, as for many readers, books reflect her inner life--her fantasies and hopes, her dreams and ideas. And her life, in turn, influences which books she chooses, whether for solace or escape, diversion or self-reflection, information or entertainment. My Life with Bob isn't about what's in those books; it's about the relationship between books and readers"--

"Everybody who has ever read a book will benefit from the way Keith Houston explores the most powerful object of our time. And everybody who has read it will agree that reports of the book’s death have been greatly exaggerated."— Erik Spiekermann, typographer We may love books, but do we know what lies behind them? 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 civilizations, 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-color illustrations, The Book gives us the momentous and surprising history behind humanity’s most important—and universal—information technology.

The book as object, as content, as idea, as interface. What is the book in a digital age? Is it a physical object containing pages encased in covers? Is it a portable device that gives us access to entire libraries? The codex, the book as bound paper sheets, emerged around 150 CE. It was preceded by clay tablets and papyrus scrolls. Are those books? In this volume in the MIT Press Essential Knowledge series, Amaranth Borsuk considers the history of the book, the future of the book, and the idea of the book. Tracing the interrelationship of form and content in the book's development, she bridges book history, book arts, and electronic literature to expand our definition of an object we thought we knew intimately. Contrary to the many reports of its death (which has been blamed at various times on newspapers, television, and e-readers), the book is alive. Despite nostalgic paeans to the codex and its printed pages, Borsuk reminds us, the term “book” commonly refers to both medium and content. And the medium has proved to be malleable. Rather than pinning our notion of the book to a single form, Borsuk argues, we should remember its long history of transformation. Considering the book as object, content, idea, and interface, she shows that the physical form of the book has always been the site of experimentation and play. Rather than creating a false dichotomy between print and digital media, we should appreciate their continuities.