Reviewing the Mail: Week of 1/22/22

One book this week: a publicity title that the publisher actually asked me if I wanted to see. (So I am feeling a certain internal pressure to actually read and post about it quickly, which is running up against my current six-week buffer on posts. Oh, modern problems!)

Index, A History of the is a new non-fiction book which does exactly what it says. Subtitle is "A Bookish Adventure from Medieval Manuscripts to the Digital Age," publisher is Norton, and it will be released into the wild on February 15 in hardcover. Author is Dennis Duncan, who teaches at University College London and writes for the usual classy outlets of that location (Times Literary Supplement, London Review of Books, Guardian).

It has a very impressive index of its own, as of course it must. The critical apparatus in general looks strong for a three-hundred-page book aimed at consumers: Norton knows how to make and publish books like this to an audience that wants borderline-frivolous topics treated seriously. (And I say that as a member of that audience.)

I expect this will be the next book I read, barring unforeseen circumstances: it looks like the kind of thing I'd enjoy.