The author explores the theme of books and bookshelves. He asks: is the modern state of affairs, where books are stacked vertically on horizontal shelves, so obvious and inevitable? Readers will trace how a scroll from antiquity evolved into a codex, and that, in turn, into the book we know today, and learn how the task of preserving book collections has been addressed throughout history. This is a lavishly illustrated and engagingly written book about the book—how it came into being and how we learned to preserve it.