Book Reviews

Smith, Emma. Portable magic. A history of books and their readers. London: Allen Lane, 2022. viii, 344 p. ISBN 978-0-241-42726-2 £20.00

I imagine that most regular readers (i.e., those reading at least a book a week) discovered the magic of books fairly early. They transport us into past worlds, the problematic present, and the only to be guessed at future. They even transport us into worlds that not only do not exist, but cannot exist, without doing violence to the laws of physics.

I don't remember the first book I read, probably because I read quite early and it was never a problem for me, but I do remember the first book that made an impact on me. My primary school during the second World War was a collection point for waste paper, and, as my grandmother's house was just across the road from the school, it was easy to go and take a look at was was stored in what I suppose to have been the bicycle shed (although I can't remember anyone coming to school in that mining village on a bicycle!) On one occasion I discovered a book without a cover and lacking both the first and last pages. So I had no idea of the title or the author, but I read it and the ideas remained with me, particularly the characters of Mrs Be-done-by-as-you-did and Mrs. Do-as-you-would-be-done-by. The book, of course, as a I discovered many years later, was Charles Kingsley's, The water babies, which is probably no longer read by anyone. However, the book took me into that underwater world, and taught me the dangers of doing as I would not like to be done by.

Charles Kingsley's book was certainly portable magic for me, as were, later, the Rupert the Bear annuals I received for Christmas as a child, and the stories of Captain W.E. Johns, Rudyard Kipling, Richard Jeffries (for Bevis: the story of a boy) and many more. Emma Smith takes her title from an essay by Stephen King, whom I must admit never to have read, and while the book is described as "a history of books" this is no dry, chronologically sequenced account of the development of the book. Rather, it is a thematic account of the relationship between books and readers, in which the history is introduced subtly. So we learn about the development of the book from papyrus rolls onwards, embedded in accounts of book burning, censorship, gift books, library books, the paperback and the hard-bound pocket book, and books that disappeared on the Titanic.

We also learn of the work of the US Council on Books in Wartime, which ultimately saw the distribution of 12 million copies of 1,324 titles to 'service personnel in 1943-7 in all sectors of war', as well as of the library of Madame de Pompadour (consisting of more than 3,000 volumes including Defoe's Robinson Crusoe): evidently, then, not simply a pretty face and well-turned ankle.

This is a fascinating account of the history of the book and one to be read by anyone who loves to read. And, importantly, it is a book that just asks to be read because of its physicality. It is small enough to hold comfortably, and stays open on one's lap at a double page opening (something that many book designers fail to provide!), and the font is a very comfortable 13.5 on 16 point Garamond, which provides a very easy to read line spacing. In other words, what the author describes as the "bookhood" of the book is ideal for the reader - personally, I would prefer "bookiness". :-)

Professor T.D. Wilson
Editor in Chief
4 June, 2022

How to cite this review

Information Research is published four times a year by the University of Borås, Allégatan 1, 501 90 Borås, Sweden.