Notes of a Bibliophile. Why Books Have Power over Us

In her incredibly engaging narrative, Oxford professor and Shakespeare specialist Emma Smith tells the story of books, a centuries-old and astonishingly interesting tale, focusing not on the familiar image of «archives of wisdom and knowledge», but on the material forms that books have taken and the various purposes they have sometimes served.
Presenting a captivating and radically new history of the book in human hands, the author seeks answers to questions about when and how it gained power over us. By recounting the immense role that books have played in the lives of people for a whole millennium, Smith makes a surprising discovery that the characteristic and quite powerful magic of books is born not only from their content but also from their form. From the Diamond Sutra to a book made from slices of cheese wrapped in cellophane, this complex artistic object has embodied and expanded relationships between readers, countries, ideologies, and cultures for many centuries, doing so very decisively and unpredictably.
«Every book promises transformation to the reader. The expectation of change is part of an unspoken contract between books and their readers. In this sense, all books are about how to help oneself. If we do not find pleasure or connection with any book, then we are stubbornly avoiding the responsibilities we are supposed to fulfill under the contract with it.» (Emma Smith)