Several essays (R. Chartier, E. Souchier, E. Eisenstein, J. Svenbro, L. Canfora...) provide information about the history and development of the book.
They remark that the paper-based book, like the alphabet, was once the latest technological rage and was met with resistance, like the computer, from the establishment because books are more than delivery systems for information. They are a way of life developed over centuries. Our concepts of authors, readers, the canon of texts, and texts as intellectual property were not inevitable but were the cumulative results of part social and political choices....
Download ebooks on http://www.frenchtheory.com/
See that post with different algorithms in metabole
See the journal French Metablog with today different posts
