The Case for Books

I've started a new project within my reading. I'm still going for 100 books in a year, but I'm trying to mix up my non-fiction a bit. I'm going through the Dewey Decimal System from 0-999 and selecting books from different areas that fit my challenge criteria. The Case for Books, by Robert Darnton, came from the early #s, but I think it was misplaced...

...it should have been in the recycling bin.

This book, rather than making a case for books, presents nothing but annoyance and an argument that some things should never be published as a book. Rather than publishing a coherent, flowing argument for books, Darnton simply packages together a bunch of already-published essays into book form. The first 2/3 of the book contains essays that are essentially identical. The last third has almost nothing to do whatsoever with the topic of the book.

To sum things up, Darnton, head of Harvard's library, thinks that e-books are the wave of the future and that Google Book Search is an awesome tool, as long as Google isn't overly monopolistic about it. But wait - he later argues that Google is being too monopolistic. So much for coherence. Second, he thinks that academic journals should move to e-book form because they are too expensive to print. Finally, he thinks that printed books should still exist for several reasons. First, because of rare books or books owned by famous people having certain value; second, because microfilm was a complete disaster and print lasts longer than we tend to think. Third, there are elements of the printed word that are valuable (flipping through pages, making notes, the feel and smell of a book).

These are all fine arguments. They are fairly obvious, but good points nonetheless (particularly the stuff about academic journals). They would make for an excellent 20-page article. Somewhere in the first 130 pages that worthwhile 20 pages is there. The rest is repetitive, redundant, or just plain annoying.

Then, in the last third of the book, Darnton presents a few articles that have nothing to do with the topic at hand. One of them is 30 years old! They concern the history of books, but contain almost no interesting or useful information - at least to a non-librarian. Honestly, the level at which he cares about this stuff - he came off as stuck-up and snooty.

Another thing that bothered me about this book is Darntons' obsession with preserving even obscure publications. He has this semi-utopian idea that we should preserve every minuscule piece of literary history. Sorry, but that's not possible. Things come and things go. Some things are forgotten...and some day all worldly things will be forgotten.

I honestly wouldn't recommend this book to anyone. Even university librarians, who seem to be the target audience. All of these articles have been printed elsewhere. Pick one and read it and that will be good enough. Don't waste your time with this completely unnecessary book.

In A Sentence: While there may indeed be a case for printed books, there is no case for the existence or preservation of this one.

Rating: 1 star out of 5 (it's competently written, and there are 20 pages of substance inside)


Book completed April 3...8 books, 34 days...at this rate I'll read 86.