Splendor of letters, a

Nicholas A. Basbanes offers a consideration of the many pressing issues that surround the role of books in contemporary society, such as the willful destruction of books and libraries in Sarajevo, Tibet, and Cambodia, and the spirited efforts to restore them. The matter of 'discards' at various libraries takes on an entirely new dimension as well, with fully researched stories about the kind of attitudes that may lead to the loss of 'last copies' of important works. In vivid detail, Basbanes examines the many materials that have been used over the centuries to record information - among them clay tablets, papyrus scrolls, slabs of stone, palm leaves, animal skins, and hammered sheets of gold and copper. Also discussed are the various debates that continue to rage about preservation, which may mean saving and storing books on paper indefinitely, or as electronic data, which are by nature ephemeral.