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Portable Magic
Portable Magic: A History of Books and their Readers | Emma Smith
12 posts | 9 read | 15 to read
Most of what we say about books is really about the words inside them: the rosy nostalgic glow for childhood reading, the lifetime companionship of a much-loved novel. But books are things as well as words, objects in our lives as well as worlds in our heads. And just as we crack their spines, loosen their leaves and write in their margins, so they disrupt and disorder us in turn. All books are, as Stephen King put it, 'a uniquely portable magic'. Here, Emma Smith shows us why. Portable Magic unfurls an exciting and iconoclastic new story of the book in human hands, exploring when, why and how it acquired its particular hold over us. Gathering together a millennium's worth of pivotal encounters with volumes big and small, Smith reveals that, as much as their contents, it is books' physical form - their 'bookhood' - that lends them their distinctive and sometimes dangerous magic. From the Diamond Sutra to Jilly Cooper's Riders, to a book made of wrapped slices of cheese, this composite artisanal object has, for centuries, embodied and extended relationships between readers, nations, ideologies and cultures, in significant and unpredictable ways. Exploring the unexpected and unseen consequences of our love affair with books, Portable Magic hails the rise of the mass-market paperback, and dismantles the myth that print began with Gutenberg; it reveals how our reading habits have been shaped by American soldiers, and proposes new definitions of a 'classic'-and even of the book itself. Ultimately, it illuminates the ways in which our relationship with the written word is more reciprocal - and more turbulent - than we tend to imagine.
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Karisimo
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#wickedwhispers #magic
This book was a drag but I love the Stephen King quote that inspired the title!
@Eggs @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks

Eggs Awesome 👏🏻 2mo
22 likes1 comment
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Andrea313
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I love being married to a reader- our Friday date night is a trip to a bookstore, and then grabbing a coffee to read in companionable silence. Feeling ultra lucky tonight! #ReadingAboutReading #NewIn

dabbe Sheer awesomeness. 😎 2y
LeahBergen What a perfect evening! 2y
32 likes2 comments
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BC_Dittemore
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Pickpick

The first time I saw a friend use a highlighter to mark passages in the novel they were reading I was flabbergasted; I didn‘t know people did that! It seemed somehow sacrilegious; to her I was overreacting. Such is the power of books. Some of us treat them with reverence, some like that favorite pair of jeans. Emma Smith dives deep into that relationship and more. It‘s insightful, entertaining, and highlighter-worthy (if that‘s your thing).

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Megabooks
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Pickpick

This was 💯 fascinating! Smith looks at the history of books from the macabre (books bound in human skin) to the totemic (books as talismans). She investigates the history of censorship, book burning, and challenges the Gutenberg as the first printer of books. I particularly liked the chapters on books as gifts and when she discussed various editions of books and how we ascribe value to them. She provides excellent examples for each point. #NFNov

Cinfhen I like the title too!!! 2y
84 likes3 stack adds1 comment
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Cazxxx
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Pickpick

Really enjoyed this audiobook about the history of books and readers. What‘s not to love?

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readingjedi
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Forgot to post my 'third time lucky' purchase from this last week - I'm just about over the embarrassment now! The duplicate books were Blurb Your Enthusiasm by Louise Willder and From Spare Oom to War Drobe by Katherine Langrish. I am currently obsessed with books about books!

julesG Don't worry. It happens. I bought books twice by accident. Once even three times (two different ebook editions plus the paperback). Now I'm only embarrassed that I still haven't read it yet. 2y
MaGoose @julesG Been the 2y
MaGoose @julesG Sorry about that. I was about to say that I have bought multiples of books a number of times. Have I read them yet? For the most part, no. 🤪🤣😆‼️ 2y
65 likes3 stack adds3 comments
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Oryx
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Got my Penguin bookmarks platinum and ruby prizes today! I chose Portable Magic (which I'd been eyeing for a while) and Either/Or for #camplitsy

And a new notebook is always welcome in my house

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shanaqui
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Pickpick

Really enjoyed this -- hit the spot in terms of the exact kind of non-fiction I was looking for right now. It treats books as objects, so it's not discussing novels per se, but more people's habits surrounding books, how books have evolved and been used, etc.

And of course, it checks off a square for #BookSpinBingo, and was my #DoubleSpin book.

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Lizzie69
Pickpick

This cannot fail to delight any bookworm or even historian.
I thoroughly enjoyed this, it's just a veritable cornucopia of book facts and little nuggets of trivia and information.
Some of it can be very sensitive and contentious at times due to the topic matter, book burnings in Germany, the war years, modern demonstrations and book burning of banned books.
But also plenty of light hearted subjects too, books made of cheese, slices of meat etc.

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peta86
Pickpick

This was at times such a quirky, fun, irreverent look at the book world, along the way we take in books made of cheese, famous book trials for obscenity, book vandals, books as art, high brow literature and "trash" reads.
Even the format of books, HB, PB, their bindings, the history of printing.
Then we have the more serious topics such as book burning by the Nazis and even modern book burning, human skin bindings etc.
A book treasure trove.

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lazydaizee
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Pickpick


This is a book about Books as objects not about the subjects written inside any particular book. Portable Magic is different from other books on this subject because there are no photographs or illustrations of any of the books mentioned , as there often are in other books of this genre. This is good because the reader has to concentrate on the text rather than just skimming through and looking at the pictures.

#nonfiction

15 likes3 stack adds