The Secret Life of Books Why They Mean More Than Words

We love books. We take them to bed with us. They weigh down our suitcases when we go on vacation. We display them on our bookshelves or store them in our attics. We give them as gifts. We write our names in them. We take them for granted. And all the time, our books are leading a double life. The Secret Life of Books is about everything that isn’t just the words. It’s about how books transform us as individuals. It’s about how books—and readers—have evolved over time. And it’s about why, even with the arrival of other media, books still have the power to change our lives. In this illuminating account, Tom Mole looks at everything from binding innovations to binding errors, to books defaced by lovers, to those imprisoning professors in their offices, to books in art, to burned books, to the books that create nations, to those we’ll leave behind. It will change how you think about books

Tom Mole is Professor of English Literature and Book History at the University of Edinburgh, where he runs the Centre for the History of the Book. His book What the Victorians Made of Romanticism won the 2018 Saltire Prize for Research Book of the Year.

CONTENTS

1 Book/Book ....................1
2 Book/Thing ...................23

Interlude: Caravaggio, St Jerome ........... 47

3 Book/Self .....................53
4 Book/Relationship ................81

Interlude: Van Gogh, Still Life with Bible ........109

5 Book/Life ....................113
6 Book/World ...................131

Interlude: Belcamp (attrib.), Great Picture ........157

7 Book/Technology ................163
8 Book/Future ..................181

Coda: Book/End ..................203

Acknowledgements ..................213
Notes ........................215
Index ........................223

ILLUSTRATIONS
1 Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, St Jerome (1605) ..47
2 Vincent van Gogh, Still Life with Bible (1885) .....109
3 Jan van Belcamp (attrib.), Great Picture (1646) ....157