Books have been hugely important in human civilisation, as instruments for communicating information and ideas. The digital age is challenging their ongoing existence - although the e-book has not yet taken over from print, the landscape is changing all the time, with the traditional functions of books increasingly being performed electronically.

People usually think of books in terms of their contents, their texts, with less thought for books as artefacts. In fact books may possess all kinds of potentially interesting qualities beyond their texts, as designed or artistic objects, or because they have unique properties deriving from the ways they have been printed, bound, annotated, beautified or defaced. Here, books from the Middle Ages to the present day are explored to show why they may be interesting beyond their texts.

Books can develop their own individual histories, which provide important evidence about the way they were used and regarded in the past, and which make them an indispensable part of the fabric of our cultural heritage. This book raises awareness of an important aspect of the life of books in the context of the ongoing debate about their future. Extensively illustrated with a wide range of images, it is both approachable and thought-provoking.