title: The Book on the Bookshelf
author:  Henry Petroski 
description: Consider the book. Though <i><a href="/exec/obidos/search-handle-url?index=books&amp;field-keywords=Brown%20and%20Moon">Goodnight Moon</a></i> and <i><a href="/exec/obidos/search-handle-url?index=books&amp;field-keywords=Joyce%20and%20Finnegans">Finnegans Wake</a></i> differ considerably in content and intended audience, they do share some basic characteristics. They have pages, they're roughly the same shape, and whether in a bookstore, library, or private home, they are generally stored vertically on shelves. Indeed, this is so much the norm that in these days of high-tech printing presses and chain bookstores, it's easy to believe that the book, like the cockroach, remains much the same as it ever was. But as Henry Petroski makes abundantly clear in <i>Book on the Bookshelf</i>, books as we know them have had a long and complex evolution. Indeed, he takes us from the scroll to the codex to the hand-lettered illuminated texts that were so rare and valuable they were chained to lecterns to prevent theft. Along the way he provides plenty of amusing anecdotes about libraries (according to one possibly apocryphal account, the library at Alexandria borrowed the works of the great Greek authors from Athens, had them copied, and then sent the copies back, keeping the originals), book collectors, and the care of books.
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  ![Cover for Weston](cover.jpg)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ## Table of Contents
  
  
  [Cover](../coverpage.html)
  
  
  [Title Page](c1.html#i1)
  
  
  [About This Book](c2.html#i2)
  
  
  [_Prologue_](c3.html#i3)
  
  
  [_Chapter 1_](c4.html#i4)
  
  
  [_Chapter 2_](c5.html#i5)
  
  
  [_Chapter 3_](c6.html#i6)
  
  
  [_Chapter 4_](c7.html#i7)
  
  
  [_Chapter 5_](c8.html#i8)
  
  
  [_Chapter 6_](c9.html#i9)
  
  
  [_Chapter 7_](c10.html#i10)
  
  
  [_Chapter 8_](c11.html#i11)
  
  
  [_Chapter 9_](c12.html#i12)
  
  
  [_Chapter 10_](c13.html#i13)
  
  
  [_Chapter 11_](c14.html#i14)
  
  
  [_Chapter 12_](c15.html#i15)
  
  
  [_Chapter 13_](c16.html#i16)
  
  
  [_Chapter 14_](c17.html#i17)
  
  
  [_Chapter 15_](c18.html#i18)
  
  
  [_Chapter 16_](c19.html#i19)
  
  
  [_Chapter 17_](c20.html#i20)
  
  
  [_Chapter 18_](c21.html#i21)
  
  
  [_Chapter 19_](c22.html#i22)
  
  
  [_Epilogue_](c23.html#i23)
  
  
  [About Greyson](c24.html#i24)
  
  
  [Author’s Note](c25.html#i25)
  
  
  [Complimentary Download](c26.html#i26)
  
  
  [About the Author](c27.html#i27)
  
  
  [Copyright Page](c28.html#i28)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # WESTON
  
  
  The K9 Files, Book 8
  