The History Of The Book – A Complete And Factual Account. Part 2.

In Part 1 we discovered that it was during the Stone Age that books were invented, but they were inscribed directly onto the walls of the cave and so were not portable. Although the use of animal skins became popular the Ice Age put paid to them as people needed the skins to keep warm and survive. Thus it was, and thus it were, and thus it did, that books vanished for an age. Eventually Bronze Age person rediscovered them and, using the newly invented and infinitely shinier bronze, books were rediscovered and enjoyed by many. But then the Iron Age came along and messed it all up as books moved on to the much less shinier, duller and way more heavier iron. These books were so heavy and wordy that they had to be pulled along by horses which, being new themselves, only the rich could afford. And thus, again, books fell out of common use and into the hands of the rich. Bloody iron age, spoiling stuff for the low people. The more enterprising of them took to scratching stories into the mud, but they were invariably trampled over or dug up and smeared over straw bales to make houses with.

And so Britain was stuck in a bookish rut. The Iron Age dragged on, and books were dragged about, for what seemed like 1000’s of years. That was until the Romans turned up. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves a bit here.

Let’s backtrack a tad and see what the Egyptians were doing book-wise, shall we? No? well, tough.

And so, onto..

The History Of The Book – A Complete and Factual Account. Part 1.

When I sat down to think about what kind of post I could write for my blog I was a little stumped. What I asked myself, what, I asked myself again in case I hadn’t heard myself, could I possibly write about that would be meaningful, insightful, intelligent – make a statement?

Then the light bulb came on.

It wasn’t an idea that came to me, it was just the timer switching the light on, but it did illuminate my bookshelf and the books upon it. Looking at them I thought, “where did all of these books come from? What is their story? What is the history of books?”

And then it came to me…..

Why don’t I write a post about my bookshelf? How shiny it is in the lamp light. How the grain really brings out the books? But then I thought, nah, that would be too totes emosh for everyone to read. So I thought on, and then something that I thought earlier came back to me….

Now, I’m no histographer, but I do know what the internet is, so I thought, how hard can it be to research and write a complete and concise history of the book-ed word? Well, I tried and discovered a ton of interesting facts that I just had to share with you all.

And so, I implore you to read on and found out wot I did find out as I present to you, in several parts-yet-to-be-decided…

THE COMPLETE AND ACCURATE HISTORY OF THE BOOK