Portable Magic is a well-researched and varied non-fiction book about the history of books as a physical form as well as an account of how attitudes towards them have grown and shifted over time. Each chapter can be read as a standalone so it is a good book to dip in and out of or to read more about a particular topic that interests you the most.
I found a lot of the information included interesting though I was not a huge fan of the style of writing. It often felt quite dry to read, like I was being bombarded with facts and quotes from various sources without much discussion or exploration in-between. I also felt like the book needed illustrations. The author does address the absence of pictures in the introduction but, personally, I don't really like pictures being described in text as it makes for quite a tedious paragraph of description.
Overall though I did learn quite a bit from this book and, as a premise, it is great for book lovers.
Thank you to Readers First for the copy of this book.
I found a lot of the information included interesting though I was not a huge fan of the style of writing. It often felt quite dry to read, like I was being bombarded with facts and quotes from various sources without much discussion or exploration in-between. I also felt like the book needed illustrations. The author does address the absence of pictures in the introduction but, personally, I don't really like pictures being described in text as it makes for quite a tedious paragraph of description.
Overall though I did learn quite a bit from this book and, as a premise, it is great for book lovers.
Thank you to Readers First for the copy of this book.