Reading matters : five centuries of discovering books /
By: Willes, Margaret
Material type: BookPublisher: London : Yale University Press, c2008.Description: xvi, 295 p., [8] p. of plates : ill. (some col ; 25 cm.Subject(s): Book collectors -- Great Britain | Book collecting -- England -- History | Book collectors -- England -- Biography | Private libraries -- England -- History | Book collectors -- United States -- HistoryDDC classification: 002.75 Online resources: Location MapItem type | Home library | Call number | Status | Date due | Barcode | Item holds |
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REGULAR | University of Wollongong in Dubai Main Collection | 002.075 WI RE (Browse shelf) | Available | T0041127 |
, Shelving location: Main Collection Close shelf browser
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001.6425 SO FT Software engineering in intelligent systems : | 001.6442 CO DA Database principles : | 001.9 TH CO Conspiracies : | 002.075 WI RE Reading matters : | 002.2 MO CO Communicating! : | 003 DE SY Systems analysis and design | 003 GH DY Dynamic systems for everyone : |
Includes bibliographical references (p. [264]-282) and index.
It is easy to forget in our own day of cheap paperbacks and mega-bookstores that, until very recently, books were luxury items. Those who could not afford to buy had to borrow, share, obtain secondhand, inherit, or listen to others reading. This book examines how people acquired and read books from the sixteenth century to the present, focusing on the personal relationships between readers and the volumes they owned. Margaret Willes considers a selection of private and public libraries across the periodmost of which have survivedshowing the diversity of book owners and borrowers, from country-house aristocrats to modest farmers, from Regency ladies of leisure to working men and women. Exploring the collections of avid readers such as Samuel Pepys, Thomas Jefferson, Sir John Soane, Thomas Bewick, and Denis and Edna Healey, Margaret Willes also investigates the means by which books were sold, lending fascinating insights into the ways booksellers and publishers marketed their wares. For those who are interested in books and reading, and especially those who treasure books, this book and its bounty of illustrations will inform, entertain, and inspire.