Books About Books

In honor of National Book Month, we present a completely non-exhaustive list of some of our favorite books about books! From the history of how books have been made to writers sharing their favorite books, this list will educate and inspire!


Compiled by:
Emily B.
The Book

Keith Houston
002.09 Hou

We may love books, but do we know what lies behind them? In The Book, Keith Houston reveals that the paper, ink, thread, glue, and board from which a book is made tell as rich a story as the words on its pages―of civilizations, empires, human ingenuity, and madness. Sure to delight book lovers of all stripes with its lush, full-color illustrations, The Book gives us the momentous and surprising history behind humanity’s most important―and universal―information technology.


The Book of Forgotten Authors

Christopher Fowler
809 Fow

So begins Christopher Fowler's foray into the back catalogues and backstories of 99 authors who, once hugely popular, have all but disappeared from our shelves. Whether male or female, domestic or international, flash-in-the-pan or prolific, mega-seller or prize-winner—no author, it seems, can ever be fully immune from the fate of being forgotten.


The Book that Made Me

Judith Ridge
- Editor
028.9 Boo

Essays by popular children's authors reveal the books that shaped their personal and literary lives, explaining how the stories they loved influenced them creatively, politically, and intellectually.


The Book-Makers: A History of the Book in Eighteen Lives

Adam Smyth
686.2092 Smy

The Book-Makers is a celebration of 550 years of the printed book, told through the lives of 18 extraordinary men and women who took the book in radical new directions: printers and binders, publishers and artists, paper-makers and library founders. This is a story of skill, craft, mess, cunning, triumph, improvisation, and error.


By the Book: Writers on Literature and the Literary Life from The New York Times Book Review
809 By

65 of the world's leading writers open up about the books and authors that have meant the most to them. These wide-ranging interviews are conducted by Pamela Paul, the editor of the The New York Times Book Review, featuring personalities as varied as David Sedaris, Hilary Mantel, Michael Chabon, Khaled Hosseini, Anne Lamott, and James Patterson. 


The Card Catalog: Books, Cards, and Literary Treasures

The Library of Congress
025.313 Car

The Library of Congress brings book lovers an enriching tribute to the power of the written word and to the history of our most beloved books. Featuring more than 200 full-color images of original catalog cards, first edition book covers, and photographs from the library's magnificent archives, this collection is a visual celebration of the rarely seen treasures in one of the world's most famous libraries and the brilliant catalog system that has kept it organized for hundreds of years.


The History of the Book in 100 Books

Roderick Cave
002.09 Cav

In The History of the Book in 100 Books, the author explores 100 books that have played a critical role in the creation and expansion of books and all that they bring—literacy, numeracy, expansion of knowledge, religion, political theory, oppression, liberation, and much more. 


Index, a History of the: A Bookish Adventure from Medieval Manuscripts to the Digital Age

Dennis Duncan
025.3 Dun

Here, for the first time, is the secret world of the index: an unsung but extraordinary everyday tool, with an illustrious but little-known past. Charting its curious path from the monasteries and universities of 13th-century Europe to Silicon Valley in the 21st century, Duncan uncovers how it has saved heretics from the stake, kept politicians from high office, and made us all into the readers we are today. 


The Library Book

Susan Orlean
027.4794 Orl

Orlean chronicles the Los Angeles Public Library (LAPL) fire and its aftermath to showcase the larger, crucial role that libraries play in our lives by delving into the evolution of libraries across the country and around the world—from their humble beginnings as a metropolitan charitable initiative to their current status as a cornerstone of national identity. Orlean brings each department of the library to vivid life through on-the-ground reporting while she studies arson by attempting to burn a copy of a book herself, reflects on her own experiences in libraries, and reexamines the case of Harry Peak, the blond-haired actor long suspected of setting fire to the LAPL more than 30 years ago.


The Oxford Illustrated History of the Book

James Raven
- Editor
02.09 Oxf

In 14 original essays, The Oxford Illustrated History of the Book reveals the history of books in all their various forms, from the ancient world to the digital present. Leading international scholars offer an original and richly illustrated narrative that is global in scope. The history of the book is the history of millions of written, printed, and illustrated texts, as well as their manufacturing, distribution, and reception. Discover different types of production, from inscribed codices to printed books, pamphlets, magazines, and newspapers, from written parchment to digital texts.


Portable Magic: A History of Books and their Readers

Emma Smith
002.09 Smi

Most of what we say about books is really about the words inside them—the rosy nostalgic glow for childhood reading, the lifetime companionship of a much-loved novel. But books are things as well as words, objects in our lives as well as worlds in our heads. And just as we crack their spines, loosen their leaves and write in their margins, so they disrupt and disorder us in turn. All books are, as Stephen King put it, "a uniquely portable magic." Here, Emma Smith shows us why.


The Untold Story of the Talking Book

Matthew Rubery
002.09 Rub

Histories of the book often move straight from the codex to the digital screen. Left out of that familiar account is nearly 150 years of audio recordings. Recounting the fascinating history of audio-recorded literature, Matthew Rubery traces the path of innovation from Edison's recitation of Mary Had a Little Lamb for his tinfoil phonograph in 1877, to the first novel-length recorded books that were made for blinded World War I veterans, to today's billion-dollar audiobook industry.