This is Not the End of the Book

The book is like the spoon: once invented, it cannot be bettered' - Umberto Eco. These days it is impossible to get away from discussions of whether the book will survive the digital revolution. Blogs, tweets and newspaper articles on the subject appear daily, many of them repetitive, most of them admitting ignorance of the future. Amidst the twittering, the thoughts of Jean-Claude Carriere and Umberto Eco come as a breath of fresh air. This thought-provoking book takes the form of a conversation in which Carriere and Eco discuss everything from how to define the first book to what is happening to knowledge now that infinite amounts of information are available at the click of a mouse. En route there are delightful digressions into personal anecdote. We find out about Eco's first computer and the book Carriere is most sad to have sold. And while, as Carriere says, the one certain thing about the future is that it is unpredictable, it is clear from this conversation that, in some form or other, the book will survive.

ISBN 0099552450   DEWEY edition DC23 ISBN13 9780099552451 (What's this?)   Pages 352 Publisher Vintage   Weight (grammes) 336 Imprint Vintage   Published in London Format Paperback   Height (mm) 198 Publication date 03 May 2012   Width (mm) 129 Translator Polly McLean   Spine width (mm) 25 Writer of introduction Jean-Philippe de Tonnac   Academic level General DEWEY 002

"A storming book. The next best thing to sitting in Umberto Eco's living room after dinner; a dream collection of lucid and fascinating discussions" -- Nick Harkaway "Hurrah for philosopher and novelist Umberto Eco and playwright and screenwriter Jean-Claude Carriere, who have come together to praise the medium... Fans of Eco and Carriere will be charmed" -- Wayne Gooderham Time Out "An entertainingly free-range dialogue about writing past, present and future" -- Boyd Tonkin Independent "The dialogue between these two superbrains is freakishly compelling and covers everything from papyrus scrolls to e-readers... Never fails to be enlightening and engaging... Hooray for this brilliant book" Dazed and Confused "This book is a reminder that the satisfaction of working through even a relatively short book comes in part through confronting digressions, dead ends and distractions: the hallmark of conversation between friends, not of Internet speed-reading" Wall Street Journal

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Version	Price	Published	Edition
Paperback	£22.50	2012
Electronic Book	£6.49