Paper: An Elegy - Hardcover

Sansom, Ian

3.45

278 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0062241435 ISBN 13: 9780062241436

Publisher: William Morrow & Co, 2013

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HardCover. Pub Date :2013-05-14 Pages: 256 Language: English Publisher:. William Morrow A witty. personal and entertaining reflection on the history and meaning of paper during the (passing) era of its universal importance Paper serves nearly every function . of our lives It is the technology with which we have made sense of the world Yet the age of paper is ending Ebooks now outsell their physical counterparts Still. there are some uses of paper that seem unlikely to change -... Christmas won ' t be Christmas without wrapped presents or crackers And the language of paper - documents. files and folders - has survived digitisation In Paper:.. An Elegy Ian Sansom builds a museum of paper and explores its paradox - its vulnerability and durability This book is. a timely meditation on the very paper it's printed on.

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Review:

"With a playfulness that begins with the title, this "elegy" to paper is instead a celebration of its essential, ubiquitous role in society, culture and life itself....[PAPER is] An enjoyable argument that speaks to the paper lover in all of us."--Kirkus Reviews

With a playfulness that begins with the title, this elegy to paper is instead a celebration of its essential, ubiquitous role in society, culture and life itself....[PAPER is] An enjoyable argument that speaks to the paper lover in all of us. --Kirkus Reviews"

From the Back Cover:

Let us suppose for a moment that paper were to disappear.

Would anything be lost?

Everything would be lost.

aper surrounds us. Not only as books, letters and diaries, but as beer mats and birth certificates, board games and business cards, fireworks and flypaper, photographs and playing cards, tickets and tea bags. We are paper people.

But the age of paper is coming to an end. E-books regularly outsell physical books. E-tickets replace the paper variety. Archives are digitized. The world we know was made from paper, and yet everywhere we look, paper is beginning to disappear. As we enter a world beyond paper, Ian Sansom explores the paradoxes of the greatest of man-made materials and shows how some kinds of paper, and the ghosts and shadows of paper, will always be with us.

Paper: An Elegy is a history of paper in all its forms and functions. Both a cultural study and a series of personal reflections on the meaning of paper, this book is a timely meditation on the very paper it is printed on.

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