One For The Books

Since Guttenberg first began moving type around five centuries ago, the book has suffered any number of indignities, from being burned to being turned into unspeakable bad movies. Today, it faces its most radical challenge from the digital tsunami that has already decimated the music business. As he shared in his critically acclaimed memoir, Closing Time, Joe Queenan became a voracious reader to escape a joyless childhood. Now, like many bibliophiles, he fears for the books that once saved him.
In One for the Books, Queenan examines the entire culture of reading and what books really mean in people's lives today. What does it suggest if a person has no books displayed in his living room? can an obsession with reading prove detrimental to one's well-being? Passionate and acerbically funny, One for the Books is Queenan at his best as he reflects upon-not just books as physical objects-but the very future of books and reading.