4.5 I forget how I stumbled upon this clever miniseries of books from Bloomsbury Press called ObjectLessons, but I'm glad I did. It is like the Tedtalk of nouns in book form. Titles include: Glass, Tree, Hotel, Bread, Silence and many intriguing more. This particular edition is about bookshelves and examines their cultural significance, their history, some of their unique features and unknown trivia. Subcategories within this include a medieval chained library (Hereford, England), the Donkey Mobile Library in Ethiopia, the Franklin naval expedition to the Arctic in 1845 whose ships were outfitted with a total of 2,900 books for the use of the voyage, futuristic depictions of bookshelves (anachronistic) and the symbiotic relationship of NY Public Library's architecture its and iron shelving. One key lesson throughout is that form follows function. "Since form and function of a text determines how and where it is curated, every text is store on its shelf and encountered and read in ways that are consistent with its respective technology, history, and cultural symbolism. Text and shelf shape each other." (5) and "Social expectations and cultural needs shape how booksleves move from place to place or how books move from shelf to shelf...bookshelves exist as a series of relationships." and "Bookshelves act as the mediating object between a person and a book...." (52) and "The bookshelf leads a life of a curious cultural sign; it is a physical, tangible thing -- a combination of technology and craft -- as well as a symbol of one's worldview." (68) The the knowledge is a little esoteric, the well-written reflection, research and philosophical premise makes this a delight. Two parting quotes that anchor the beginning: "A room without books is a body without a soul" (Cicero) and the ending: "Books speak of other books and every story tells a story that has already been told." (Umberto Eco) ( )