Order of Books

Rating:
Summary: Breaking the Amazon Rules
Review: Both of the reviewers below are breaking Amazon's reviewer rules. The older review talks about the *author* as distinct from the *book* when he/she speculates about the author's motives in adding footnotes. The second review, by Sean, argues with the first review. Another rule violation. I'm giving the book 3 stars because the system requires me to rate it, and I haven't read it.

Rating:
Summary: Chartier's Order of Books--Terrific!
Review: I want to respond to the obnoxious review that [e-mail] made of this book. I found The Order of Books to be informative, exciting, lucid, and memorable. The implication that it is stylistically opaque or excessively academic is unjust and untrue. This book says a great deal about the history of reading and its social settings. Any student, bibliophile, or patron of libraries will enjoy and profit from it.

Rating:
Summary: idle exercize
Review: There is only one strong paragraph in this mercifully short, dissatisfying book...a quotation from Borges.When you reach that paragraph you straighten up like a passenger whose car has just passed from a rutted dirt track to a paved road. Constant homage is paid to various mentors and proteges in that "I'll footnote you if you footnote me" way.A certain kind of French cul de sac...if only they esteemed their subject as much as one another.Sample sentence: "The multifaceted return of the author in critical problematics takes us back to the question that Foucault posed...." Daddy are we there yet?

Rating:
Summary: idle exercize
Review: There is only one strong paragraph in this mercifully short, dissatisfying book...a quotation from Borges.When you reach that paragraph you straighten up like a passenger whose car has just passed from a rutted dirt track to a paved road. Constant homage is paid to various mentors and proteges in that "I'll footnote you if you footnote me" way.A certain kind of French cul de sac...if only they esteemed their subject as much as one another.Sample sentence: "The multifaceted return of the author in critical problematics takes us back to the question that Foucault posed...." Daddy are we there yet?

Rating:
Summary: classic
Review: This is really a classic to own or to read at least in the history of books field. Roger Chartier is really among the experts in that particular subject and The Order of Books gives an interesting overview of the history of reading. He doesn't waste too much time on statistics and provides real interpretations.