Reading Books..The Popular Pastime With A Fascinating History

If reading books is one of your favorite things, you may find the history of books interesting. In ancient times material that was written on included clay, stone, tree bark, and metal plates. The script was continual with no spaces between words, and was written in both right to left and left to right. Sometimes just every other line was written in a different direction. In the seventh century Irish monks introduced the space between words, but it wasn't until the 12th century that this practice became popular.
About 2400 B.C., papyrus, which was thick and resembled paper, was glued together to form a scroll. The Asians were the last to give up the scroll.
As early as 80 A.D. the Christians began using a codex made from wax tablets on wood, which resulted in a portable book form, which was more compact. This writing material could be used on both sides which made this form economical, and it is believed that the Christians preferred this form since the pagan writings were in scroll form.
When the Roman Empire fell in the fifth century A.D., contact with Egypt ceased, and parchment was substituted for papyrus. Parchment had to be made ready and the book's content planned in advance, with space left blank for illustration. Monasteries had been active in copying books one at a time in gold or silver, and since a certain hour was set aside for reading, the majority of books were found in monasteries. The clergy therefore were the most prolific readers. By the ninth century even in the smaller monasteries these collections numbered 500 volumes. Thanks to the Phoenicians, papyrus was brought to Greece in the 9th century. The Greek word for a papyrus books was biblios,named after the Phoenician town Byblos, which is why today someone who is an avid reader is called a bibliofile.
In the 8th century the Arabs studied the paper industry, and were the first to produce books in paper. The pages were attached with silk, and the cover was a board covered with leather. With the advent of universities in the 13th century, there was an increased demand for books, and copyists were used to copy a number of leaves which were not bound. A scribe was known as a sofer in Jewish communities. According to tradition, the Torah used in Jewish temples could not be printed but had to be written by hand. Books printed before 1500 were known as incunabula.

It wasn't until the 1800's that printing presses powered by steam were used.
In the following years censorship laws were more lax, and the presses were gradually improved. By the middle of the 20th century, the Europeans could produce in excess of 200,000 books per year, eventually leading to the popularity of reading books today. .Read more: http://www.articlesbase.com/history-articles/reading-booksthe-popular-pastime-with-a-fascinating-history-1533258.html#ixzz0pKyutHB2 Under Creative Commons License: Attribution