Monday, October 11, 2010

Books: A History

My mass media class is currently studying books. Here is a short history of books just for fun! After all it is always good to know your roots.

- In 2400 B.C. the Egyptians began writing on thin sheets made from plant reeds found along the Nile - aka Papyrus

- 1000 B.C the Chinese made the first resemblence of a book with wood and bamaboo

- 350 A.D. The Romans produced the first protomodern books by sewing sheets of parchment together and covering them with wood and leather

- 600 A.D. Monks wrote and decorated colorful pages called illuminated manuscripts. These manuscripts were often decorated with gold and gems

- 1000 The Chinese invented the precurser to the printing press and typewriter by assigning seperate pieces of wood and metal to chinese characters allowing them to print quickly

- 1453 Johannes Gutenbers turns a wine press into a printing press, introducing mass production of books

- 1640 Stephen Daye prints The Booke of Psalms the first book printed in the colonies

- 1800's publishing house emerge to mass produce works from good writers

- Mid 1800's Linotype and offset Lithography lower the cost of books and literacy explodes

- 1870's "pulp fiction" is created, printing on cheap pulp paper brought the paperbacks to the middle and lower class

- 1971 Borders speads to a chain of bookstores

-1995 bookstores go online

- 2007 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows breaks records with a first press run of 12 million

Look how far we have come!!!!!

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