This really hit the right reading spot for me at the moment. It's a book about books -- not novels, mind you, but books as a physical object, a thing which can be written on, rebound, inscribed by the author, used to list out a family tree, etc. 

In theory, each chapter can be read alone, but I think it does somewhat benefit from being taken in order -- but I would think that, because I'm usually not a "dip in and out" type person.

There's some fascinating stuff here; I was most interested, perhaps, in the discussion of a Bible painstakingly printed in a Native American language in order to aid the colonists in converting local peoples. It worked, and the language itself declined almost to extinction- but that Bible is now being used to reconstruct it! If only all colonial works could be turned on themselves so beautifully to make reparation.