From the Book - First US edition.
Prologue: curating the ruins --
Inception and survival. A confusion of scrolls ; Sanctuary ; Little monkeys and letters of gold --
The crisis of print. The infernal press ; Coming of age ; Reformations --
The new collectors. The professionals ; Idle books and riff raff ; Mission fields --
Between public and private. Grand designs ; Cardinal errors ; The antiquarians --
Fictions. Orderly minds ; Building empires ; Reading on the job --
The war on books. Surviving the twentieth century ; Wrestling with modernity ; Libraries, books and politics --
Postscript: reading without books.