Where can you find Paolo Sarpi and Mick Jagger, the earliest book peddlers and Nazi’s, comfort reads and medieval marginalia, bouqinistes and UNESCO bookstalls, shy nerds and arrogant pedants?
The answer is…in Martin Latham’s book.
Not only is the subject matter varied, but so too is the wide variety of characters you meet along the way, in this part historical part philosophical account that reads like a novel due to the delightful (sometimes downright hilarious) anecdotes peppered throughout.
What a never ending supply of knowledge, adventure, romance, mystery, horror and sheer pleasure books provide. How universal the sensation when entering a bookshop whether in New York, Australia or South Africa.
Booksellers, printers and readers have fought, supported, funded, hidden and been tortured and killed in the name of freedom of speech and thought. Battles and wars have played a part in the loss of, and birth of, some of the greatest books ever written.All in the name of love for the written word.
If you love words and writing in all its forms, if you sniff, caress, hug and kiss books, if you just can’t wait to hunker down and lose yourself in a book the first spare moment you have and you love creative conversations and great language, this read will certainly satisfy.
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