This is not the end of the book

In This is not the end of the book Jean-Philippe de Tonnac moderates a discussion between Umberto Eco and Jean-Claude Carriere about the history and future of books.

The book starts with a look at whether real books will face a challenge from e-books, but soon moves on to other matters. An important part of the discussion is about how we select which books from the past are considered to be important. When books have been destroyed by fire, or by zealous rulers, have we lost something vital, or is this just another way of filtering which books we should read - would they have survived somehow if they had said something significant. The participants also discuss their huge book collections. What books are they most please about having found? Does it matter if they haven't read many of the books in their collection? And do they worry about the fate of their collections.

If you are looking for a detailed discussion about whether e-books will supplant other books, then I don't think that this is for you - you'll get irritated by the rambling nature of the discussion. But that isn't really the point of the book. If you appreciate listening in on two experts talking about books and their history then I think that you will find this one very enjoyable.