This is not an easy book to describe, but it is a very good one, and parts of it are outstanding. The writing is excellent, the research seems thorough, and as a rabbi, Glickman has a heightened understanding of the importance of books, learning and religious texts to Judaism. The photos are helpful, although the book could use more. Here's a sample of his prose, which also describes the importance of study: "Personal moments of transcendence might be moving, but what really counts is what God said to the Jewish people collectively. And what God said to the Jewish people collectively is called Torah. To study Torah, therefore, is to study a thunderous moment of divine revelation, To study Torah is to hear the voice of God."
The first half of the book is the best, describing the relationship of books to Jewish culture, and it has some fascinating detail about manuscripts, early printing in Hebrew, and how printing helped the standardization of texts, which in turned helped a sense of Jewishness in the widely dispersed communities making up the world of Judaism. Among other things, there's an excellent account of the early days of Hasidism. One outstanding feature is actually fiction, a fictional account of a visit to a real Jewish library in pre-war Vilna (the Strashun Library); sections of the visit mix with the first chapter. The fictional visit will have an impact on any reader, but if the reader loves books, he or she will be drawn deeply into Glickman's book.
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