Matthew Battles does not write stories that move, develop or unfold. He creates worlds that hiss, snap, and rattle, and decorates them with objects that brood in black, glassine silence, or crumble in
On the survival and destruction of knowledge, from Alexandria to the Internet. Through the ages, libraries have not only accumulated and preserved but also shaped, inspired, and obliterated knowledge
Wallace Stegner called its stacks "enchanted." Barbara Tuchman called it "my Archimedes bathtub, my burning bush." But to Thomas Wolfe, it was a place of "wilderment and despair." Since its opening in
Through the ages, libraries have not only accumulatedand preserved but also shaped, inspired, and obliteratedknowledge. Now they are in crisis. Former rare books librarianand Harvard MetaLAB visionary
Why does writing exist? What does it mean to those who write? Born from the interplay of natural and cultural history, the seemingly magical act of writing has continually expanded our consciousness.
Jack London’s plague novel, in which the world’s population has been reduced to a few scattered bands of primitive scavengers, has influenced subsequent science-fiction apocalypses and dystopias ? fro
In an age of ebook readers and digital downloads, it is easy to imagine a time when printed books will vanish, rendered extinct by the Internet revolution. But such forecasts miss the mark, say Jeffre
Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things.It towers over us and yet fades into background. Its lifespan outstrips ours, and yet its wisd
