Jam-packed with fascinating snippets of info but more academic than mainstream reading.
Although I primarily read fiction I doubt there are many book lovers who could resist a book about all things bookish and more specifically the history of the book in human hands. This book is exactly that and traces development from pre-Gutenberg times through to ebooks and includes details on everything from production, censorship, book burning, malicious damage of library books and book collecting. As Emma Smith states, “books are ordinary things that become special in the unpredictable and unique human connections they embody and extend”, but there is no doubt that form matters. Although when we talk about books we emphasise how they made us feel and what they made us think as opposed to how they felt, quite often the content is inseparable from the form in which we first encountered them (probably best evidenced by our connection with the books of our childhood).
Having seen incredibly favourable reviews of Portable Magic in two broadsheet newspapers I was eager to immerse myself in the contents which sounded like the perfect book to dip into, with chapters that standalone and do not need to be read in a specific order. The book is jam-packed with fascinating snippets and facts about the history of all things bookish and its scope is phenomenal. Indeed for a mainstream general reader I felt it needed to be pared back somewhat because frankly the prose is so free-ranging that I found it all rather dizzying! Chapters start and seem to lurch at breakneck speed through a thousand topics and by the time I reached the end I found I had lost sight of where it all started out. Emma Smith is clearly fiercely intelligent and there is no doubt that she writes well and in a lively manner which I enjoyed for the most part, but if she had only stayed a little more on-topic I expect I would have found the contents a whole lot more accessible.
Whilst Portable Magic is undoubtedly a valuable resource for any bookshelf, as a regular reader and not an academic, I found it too discursive and a bit all over the shop! Terrific content but it is not the easiest read and I would be hard pushed to recommend it for the average keen fiction reader. Notes on each chapter with further references are included along with an index.
Having seen incredibly favourable reviews of Portable Magic in two broadsheet newspapers I was eager to immerse myself in the contents which sounded like the perfect book to dip into, with chapters that standalone and do not need to be read in a specific order. The book is jam-packed with fascinating snippets and facts about the history of all things bookish and its scope is phenomenal. Indeed for a mainstream general reader I felt it needed to be pared back somewhat because frankly the prose is so free-ranging that I found it all rather dizzying! Chapters start and seem to lurch at breakneck speed through a thousand topics and by the time I reached the end I found I had lost sight of where it all started out. Emma Smith is clearly fiercely intelligent and there is no doubt that she writes well and in a lively manner which I enjoyed for the most part, but if she had only stayed a little more on-topic I expect I would have found the contents a whole lot more accessible.
Whilst Portable Magic is undoubtedly a valuable resource for any bookshelf, as a regular reader and not an academic, I found it too discursive and a bit all over the shop! Terrific content but it is not the easiest read and I would be hard pushed to recommend it for the average keen fiction reader. Notes on each chapter with further references are included along with an index.