reviews


 

 

 

 

Book Reviews 591 

than impressive. Certainly, one of the 
keys to the profession’s gaining greater 
influence is education, and books such as 
Digital Copyright will be instrumental in 
that education as they attempt to trans­
late the confusing language of copyright 
law into understandable terms.—Timothy 
Hensley, Randolph-Macon College. 

Matthews, Jack. Reading Matter: A Rabid 
Bibliophile’s Adventures among Old and 
Rare Books. New Castle, Del.: Oak 
Knoll Pr., 2000. 208p. $29.95, alk. pa­
per (ISBN 1584560274). LC 00-031361. 

If you missed reading a selection of Jack 
Matthews’s essays in prior appearances 
in the Washington Times, Antioch Review, 
or Soundings, you will be glad to have 
another opportunity in Reading Matter. 
This delightful collection of twelve essays 
is both educational and entertaining, and 
includes topics as disparate as the comma 
and booksellers’ catalogs. The essays are 
unified by the theme of book collecting, 
described by Matthews as bibliophilia. 
Elements of this underlying theme creep 

into each essay in the form of an anec­
dote. Matthews, distinguished professor 
of English language and literature at Ohio 
University, uses the anecdote as preamble, 
a device through which he launches into 
the central theme of the essays them­
selves. The first essay, “Anecdotal Evi­
dence,” contrasts trivia with triviality and 
anecdotes, placing anecdotes in context 
in literature and history and thus prepar­
ing the reader for what is to come—espe­
cially in an artistic (if not thematic) sense. 

Several essays address the book as ob­
ject. In “The Binding of Books and the 
Matter of Spirit,” Matthews offers a 
chatty, yet theoretical, discussion of bind­
ings. Far from taking a traditional ap­
proach, the author bounces between top­
ics, ranging from book coverings to their 
contents, in a manner that might be de­
scribed as a “stream of consciousness.” 
He speaks of establishing a “sensible bal­
ance between inner and outer validities.” 
Matthews paints an interesting history of 
dust jackets in “Dust Jackets and the Art 
of Memory.” Through examples, he dem-

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preceding twelve months. 

Extent and Nature of Circulation 
(Average figures denote the average number of copies printed each issue during the preceding 
twelve months; actual figures denote actual number of copies of single issue published nearest 
filing date: November 2001 issue.) 15a. Total number of copies (Net press run): average 13,108; 
actual 12,231. 15b(1) Paid/Requested Outside County: average 11,919; actual 11,912. 15c. 
Total Paid and/or Requested Circulation: average 11,919; actual 11,912. 15d(1). Free distribu­
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Requested Circulation: average 99%; actual 97%. 

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(PS Form 3526, Oct. 1999) for 2001 filed with the 

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in Chicago, October 1, 2001. 



592 College & Research Libraries November 2001 

onstrates the potential value of a dust 
jacket as a tool for better understanding 
the time in which it was produced. 
Matthews dissects several specimens by 
and about well-known authors, com­
menting on what was and was not said. 

Other chapters focus on why people 
write books and what they write in them. 
“Words from the Smokehouse: The Vitu­
perations of Theophilus Noel” examines 
the motivation behind authorship, which 
Matthews speculates stems from egotism, 
at least in a broad sense. He explores au­
thorship and publishing, and substanti­
ates his earlier premise by citing vanity 
presses. This discussion expands into 
vocabularies and perceived bigotries re­
sulting from the use of specific words, or 
connotations. “Inscribed Copies, Or 
‘What the Hell Can I Say’” begins with 
an anecdote about the passions of collect­
ing and describes an individual who col­
lected annotations travelers had inscribed 
in Gideon’s Bibles throughout the coun­
try. This passage provides commentary 
on another facet of the passion for collect­
ing as well as an opening for Matthews’s 
discussion of the value that annotations 
can add to many texts. He notes the per­
functory nature of many inscriptions and 
comments that they have little value if 
they cannot be placed in the context of 
history. He also highlights exceptions, 
many of which provide insight into the 
text itself. The chapter title is excerpted 
from an inscription penned by Charles 
Bukowski, and Matthews cites other ex­
amples in which the authors of texts have 
drawn directly upon their content for in­
spiration. 

Bibliomania is the topic of two pieces. 
“Vesalius and the Sleepy Oncologist” de­
scribes Matthews’s chance encounter with 
a physician with whom he has a conver­
sation about book collecting, in which the 
doctor reveals his hidden passion for a 
medical rarity. Through his inclusion of 
this venture into the history of medicine, 
Matthews demonstrates the breadth and 
depth of his wide-ranging interests. He 
supplies readers with evidence that he is 
indeed a bibliophile and has no qualms 

about educating the uninitiated in the plea­
sures of book collecting. The penultimate 
essay, “Bookish Lunacies,” concerns itself 
with the challenges and diversions asso­
ciated with the thrill of the hunt. As he 
delves into the realm of bibliomania, 
Matthews recounts tales of book hunters 
who have come in contact with a “slice of 
human life.” Matthews tends to wander 
off the theme of bookishness in this essay, 
embarking on a study of human nature 
and eccentrics as viewed from his unique 
perspective. 

“The Philosophy of the Comma” is a 
discourse on punctuation. This essay, like 
most, is filled with visual imagery. 
Matthews describes “commas [that] stood 
out like metal studs on a dog collar,” as 
he provides an analysis of the use of the 
comma in several works spanning cen­
turies and genres. Other essays include: 
“A Cabinet of Facts and Fancies”; 
“Heraclitus on Hog Island”; and “A 
Woman Great with Child in Pago,” which 
begins with a pleasant travelogue of a 
journey the author took to Norway in 
which, as anticipated, he describes an 
episode of bibliophilia. 

The final essay in this compilation, 
“Last Words,” is a brief study of the dy­
ing words of famous people, discussed 
here because they frequently appear in 
anthologies. Matthews acknowledges 
that these final utterances, compilations 
of which were common during the nine­
teenth century, are often given more 
weight than daily conversation. This is a 
fitting final chapter to any book. 
Matthews cites examples from literary 
and theatrical worlds, among others, and 
notes that more often than not, last words 
are quoted by writers. There is, perhaps, 
a hint of suspicion present in this explo­
ration, as he notes that this period in one’s 
life is an opportunity for high drama. 

This volume does not contain an in­
dex, and there are minor editing errors in 
the text. For example, two of the chapter 
titles listed in the table of contents do not 
correspond with the titles on the essay 
title pages. Although this series of essays 
may not be a useful reference tool, the 



 

Book Reviews 593 

texts themselves are well written, intel­
lectually stimulating, challenging, and en­
tertaining. Moreover, the book is nicely 
illustrated with a series of eight full-color 
plates and is supplemented with title 
page transcriptions. The essays of 
Matthews, a prolific author, combine to 
create a thought-provoking text that will 
appeal to librarians, book collectors, and 
students of book history alike.—Lois 
Fischer Black, North Carolina State Univer­
sity. 

West, Cynthia K. Techno-Human Mesh: The 
Growing Power of Information Technolo­
gies. Westport, Conn.: Quorum, 2001. 
240p. $62.50, alk. paper (ISBN 
1567204090). LC 00-037295. 

Cynthia West’s Techno-Human Mesh is a 
remarkable contribution to the research 
on the relations between the human body 
and digital devices. West is a political 
theorist who works as an independent 
consultant in the information technology 
industry. She spent more than ten years 
in Silicon Valley as a “digerati” research­
ing how information technology (IT) af­
fects, changes, and shapes society and 
culture globally. By examining the inter­
section of IT, power, people, and bodies, 
West demonstrates how new modes of 
surveillance and control in society and 
over human bodies are created by IT as it 
becomes more efficient, productive, and 
profitable. 

Because the emerging technologies in­
tegrate bodies and machines through 
various interfaces, West explores the ways 
in which human–machine interface tech­
nologies, biometric technologies, and sur­
veillance technologies change the way 
physical bodies are experienced. She ana­
lyzes the concepts of “body” and “power” 
using feminist and postmodern theories, 
including Donna Haraway’s “cyborgs,” 
Katherine Hayles’s “embodiment,” and 
Michel Foucault’s “power networks.” The 
concept of power networks, Foucault ex­
plains, is that “power is not a simple bi­
nary relationship of one class over an­
other, but one of complex nonlinear rela­
tionships,” which “is diffused through­

out society, like a network, in a variety of 
locations, institutions, and practices.” 

Digerati are defined as those “people 
who are engaged in designing, develop­
ing, marketing, and selling IT products 
and services” or those with special IT 
knowledge. West analyzes various factors 
of digerati identity, such as age, gender, 
ethnicity, and economic status. The 
digerati is divided into three classes: first 
are the A-list digerati consisting of the ex­
ecutive management of IT companies, 
venture capitalists, and majority stock­
holders who fund the companies; second 
are the academic researchers and devel­
opers, engineers, and programmers who 
have special IT knowledge to design, pro­
duce, and develop IT; and third are the 
vice presidents, directors, and senior sales 
and marketing personnel who require 
enough IT knowledge to market and sell 
products. Digerati class is based on a va­
riety of ethnic, racial, economic, and geo­
graphic factors. The majority of the 
digerati are from developed countries, 
although more and more are hired from 
developing countries because they will 
work for lower wages. These classes of 
digerati have different degrees of power. 
The people of the A-list have the greatest 
power through their ownership of com­
panies. 

Tracing the evolution of computers, 
West focuses on human–machine inter­
face technologies. In her view, the 
progress of computer technology, size 
(smaller) and running speed (faster) are 
the major development trends. The 
smaller digital devices can be worn on 
human bodies easily and improve work­
ers’ flexibility and productivity. They also 
allow companies to hire less-experienced 
and minimally trained personnel as sur­
rogate bodies through wireless commu­
nication. Through their efforts to merge 
machines and human bodies, the digerati 
are now in a good position to create more 
efficient tools in the name of productiv­
ity and profitability. 

West believes that for the public good, 
the public must be engaged in IT devel­
opment and recommends six levels of ac­