170 records matched your query       

Author:

Smith, Emma, author., (Emma Josephine.)

Title:

Portable magic : a history of books and their readers / Emma Smith.

Edition:

First American edition.

Publisher:

Alfred A. Knopf

Copyright Date:

2022

Description:

337 pages ; 22 cm.

Subject:

Books--History.
Books--Anecdotes.
Books and reading--History.
Books and reading--Anecdotes.
Book industries and trade--History.

Notes:

"Originally published in by Allen Lane, an imprint of Penguin Random House UK., in London in 2022.". Includes bibliographical references and index.

Contents:

Introduction: Magic books -- Beginnings: East, West and Gutenberg -- Queen Victoria in the trenches -- Christmas, gift books and abolition -- Shelfies: Anne, Marilyn and Madame de Pompadour -- Silent Spring and the making of a classic -- The Titanic and book traffic -- Religions of the book -- 10 May 1933: burning books -- Library books, camp, and malicious damage -- Censored books: '237 goddams, 58 bastards, 31 Chrissakes, and 1 fart' -- Mein Kampf : freedom to publish? -- Talismanic books -- Skin in thegame: book-binding and African-American poetry -- Choose Your Own Adventure: readers' work -- The empire writes back -- What is a book? -- Epilogue: Books and transformation.

Summary:

"Most of what we say about books is really about the words inside them: the rosy nostalgic glow for childhood reading, the lifetime companionship of a much-loved novel. But books are things as well as words, objects in our lives as well as worlds in our heads. And just as we crack their spines, loosen their leaves and write in their margins, so they disrupt and disorder us in turn. All books are, as Stephen King put it, 'a uniquely portable magic'. Here, Emma Smith shows us why"-- Provided by publisher.

ISBN:

1524749095
9781524749095

LCCN:

2022018062

Locations:

BOPG851 -- Ames Public Library (Ames)

GBPF771 -- Ankeny Kirkendall Public Library (Ankeny)

TCPG826 -- Bettendorf Public Library Information Center (Bettendorf)

TYPH572 -- Cedar Rapids Public Library (Cedar Rapids)

DBPE173 -- Clear Lake Public Library (Clear Lake)

CDPF771 -- Clive Public Library (Clive)

XXPH787 -- Council Bluffs Public Library (Council Bluffs)

FXPH314 -- Carnegie-Stout Public Library (Dubuque)

SCPC074 -- Hudson Public Library (Hudson)

CAPH522 -- Iowa City Public Library (Iowa City)

OVUX522 -- University of Iowa Libraries (Iowa City)

YEPF572 -- Marion Public Library (Marion)

LAPH975 -- Sioux City Public Library (Sioux City)

GDPF771 -- Urbandale Public Library (Urbandale)

SFPH074 -- Waterloo Public Library (Waterloo)