Portable Magic

A History of Books and their Readers

Emma Smith

$45

Hardback

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English

Allen Lane
17 May 2022

Literature, Poetry & Criticism; Literary theory; Literary studies: general; Social & cultural history; Publishing industry; Gift books

An effervescent and excitingly revisionist history of bibliophilia, from a globally respected Shakespeare scholar

Most of what we say about books is really about their contents- 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'. In this thrilling new history, Emma Smith shows us why.

Portable Magic unfurls an exciting, iconoclastic and ambitious new story of the book in human hands, exploring when, why and how it acquired its particular hold over humankind. Gathering together a millennium's worth of pivotal encounters with volumes big and small, Smith compellingly argues that, as much as their contents, it is books' physical form - their 'bookhood' - that lends them their distinctive and sometimes dangerous magic. From the Diamond Sutra to Jilly Cooper's Riders, to a book made of wrapped slices of cheese, Smith uncovers how this composite artisanal object has, for centuries, embodied and extended relationships between readers, nations, ideologies and cultures, in significant and unpredictable ways. She celebrates the rise of the mass-market paperback, and dismantles the myth that print began with Gutenberg; she reveals how our reading habits have been shaped by American soldiers, and proposes a new definition of a 'classic'. Ultimately, Smith illuminates the ways in which our relationship with the written word is more reciprocal - and more turbulent - than we tend to imagine- for better or worse, books do not simply reflect humankind, but have also defined who we are, turning us into the readers they would like to have.

Portable Magic: A History of Books and their Readers

By: Emma Smith
Imprint: Allen Lane
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 222mm, Width: 144mm, Spine: 33mm
Weight: 468g
ISBN: 9780241427262
ISBN 10: 0241427266
Pages: 240
Publication Date: 17 May 2022
Audience: General/trade , Professional and scholarly , College/higher education , ELT Advanced , Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Out of Print

Professor Emma Smith is a lecturer in English at the University of Oxford, Professor of Shakespeare Studies, and a Fellow of Hertford College.

Reviews for Portable Magic: A History of Books and their Readers

If you love books, you'll love Portable Magic -- Val McDermid For many of us, books are the life we chose without thinking about it too much. Emma Smith's terrifically knowledgeable and thoughtful Portable Magic helps us understand every aspect of what our beloved books stand for. I for one am very grateful. What a delight this book is. -- Lynne Truss Irresistibly fascinating -- John Carey Praise for Emma Smith -- - Thought-provoking, fizzing with jokes ... Smith does it all with such a light touch you barely notice how much you're learning -- Colin Burrow * Guardian * Brilliantly approachable and entertaining ... anarchic, counterintuitive, critical ... perfect -- Alex Preston * Observer * Delightful ... beautifully judged, impeccably researched, yet wry and affectionate -- Jerry Brotton * Financial Times * Quirky, brilliant, bracing -- Daniel Swift * Spectator * Wildly entertaining ... This fascinating, slyly amusing book carries an undertow of personal affection for the curious, rectangular, multileaved objects with which we're so familiar * Sunday Times * Fun, playful, learned and accessible... Smith is herself a magical writer * BBC History Magazine * Joyous ... thrilling ... A brilliantly written account of the book-as-material-object, and the slightly seedy pleasures of bookhood -- Kathryn Hughes * Guardian (Book of the Week) * Smith's genius is to question as well as to value and register every contradiction - to make you, the reader, think without even suspecting that you are ... for communicating complex material in conversational, occasionally irreverent, prose -- Lucasta Miller * The Critic * Brilliant... amusing, darkly sobering, and consistently fascinating ... a combination of deep scholarship and down-to-earth wit * Telegraph *