The Case for Books by Robert Darnton

Darnton is a world renowned scholar of book history who is now the director of the Harvard University Library. His book is actually a collection of essays, most of which were originally written for the New York Review of Books. Darnton presents many nuggets to ponder in his discussion of the past, present, and future of books--one of which is the form of the book. Very early on he separates the use of the word book, which he uses to mean the content, from codex, which is bound pages with a cover; the current manifestation of physical books. He does an excellent job explaining the Google Books project in layman's terms, he also clarifies other ideas from the world of Academia and printing history. If you would like to read a thinking person's book about books, this may just fit the bill.