Having read several of Kurlansky's books, in which history is distilled through unusual lenses, I was looking forward to Paper. But the author made so many mistakes and included so many poorly explained (perhaps he himself did not fully understand what he had read?) glosses about the development of language and related areas in just the beginning sections that I found myself questioning the veracity of not only the material he presents in this volume, but in his others as well. A disappointment.