Fernando Báez

This is an incredible book. I think it suffers a little from translation--passages and phrases sometimes feel both lovely and awkward at the same time. But the primary purpose of the book, to give a sense of the extent, political/social context and the great loss that's accompanied book destruction since the beginning of writing is tremendous. The major flaw is that there is no mention of sub-Saharan Africa, which seems a major omission. Still, this is a book I'm planning on buying, since I went back to read certain pieces many times.… (more)

The book was interesting, but it was a bit tiresome and depressing at times. You are looking at humanity's history pretty much by the many books (and scrolls and manuscripts) that have been lost or destroyed from natural disasters to man's intentional destruction. It is written in short sections, which makes it easy to read, but the prose is a little on the dry side (which is why I gave it two stars; it just did not draw me in). If you are interested in books, it is worth a look, but it is a slow read.… (more)

The cumulative impact of the author's catalog of book destruction has a numbing effect. Some describe the elimination of collections, and others all copies of a given title. The entries span the full span from the first accounts of lost manuscripts, to the recent obscene apathy shown by the United States during its invasion of Iraq.

As a work of scholarship, the details and stories are impressive. But the weight on the human spirit to see gathered in one place the malicious, thoughtless and unlucky losses in our human intellectual patrimony is crushing.… (more)