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Portable Magic
- A History of Books and Their Readers
- Narrated by: Emma Smith
- Length: 8 hrs and 25 mins
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Portable Magic
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Summary
Brought to you by Penguin.
Most of what we say about books is really about the words inside them: the rosy nostalgic glow for childhood reading, the lifetime companionship of a much-loved novel. But books are things as well as words, objects in our lives as well as worlds in our heads. And just as we crack their spines, loosen their leaves and write in their margins, so they disrupt and disorder us in turn. All books are, as Stephen King put it, 'a uniquely portable magic'. Here, Emma Smith shows us why.
Portable Magic unfurls an exciting and iconoclastic new story of the book in human hands, exploring when, why and how it acquired its particular hold over us. Gathering together a millennium's worth of pivotal encounters with volumes big and small, Smith reveals that, as much as their contents, it is books' physical form—their 'bookhood'—that lends them their distinctive and sometimes dangerous magic. From the Diamond Sutra to Jilly Cooper's Riders, to a book made of wrapped slices of cheese, this composite artisanal object has, for centuries, embodied and extended relationships between readers, nations, ideologies and cultures, in significant and unpredictable ways.
Exploring the unexpected and unseen consequences of our love affair with books, Portable Magic hails the rise of the mass-market paperback, and dismantles the myth that print began with Gutenberg; it reveals how our reading habits have been shaped by American soldiers, and proposes new definitions of a 'classic'—and even of the book itself. Ultimately, it illuminates the ways in which our relationship with the written word is more reciprocal—and more turbulent—than we tend to imagine.
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Critic reviews
"A fascinating journey into our relationship with the physical book...I lost count of the times I exclaimed with delight when I read a nugget of information I hadn't encountered before." (Val McDermid, The Times)
What listeners say about Portable Magic
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Mrs. Ann M. Mcmahon
- 05-12-22
Audible Magic
A fascinating consideration of the lives of many types of book as objects. I shall never again drive on the M6 Toll Road without smiling!
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Safist
- 28-08-24
A Fascinating Perspective
A novel, erudite & empathetic approach to books looking at form, content, authors & the human and historical context.
Excellence, excellently read
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Gilda
- 10-05-22
Pure heaven for us book lovers!
Full of wondrous facts & thoughtful insights, Portable Magic is stylishly and wittily written, a joy from beginning to end. Loved every minute of Emma Smith’s book — and her narration too.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Eliza9DW
- 14-01-23
unusual perspective
loved this book- full of fascinating research and thoughts from a great scholar. listen - you'll love it !
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Helen Garlick
- 08-09-22
Fascinating material ruined by dreadful reading
This is the worst reading I have experienced on Audible . Flat, dull monotone. Such a waste of a fascinating and deeply researched subject. Don’t bother to buy it,
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