Lydia Pyne (PhD) is a freelance writer, editor, historian, and Research Fellow in the Institute for Historical Studies at the University of Texas at Austin, USA. She is a contributing editor for The Appendix and a reviewer and essayist for NewPages and New York Journal of Books. She is the author of Seven Skeletons: The Evolution of the World's Most Famous Human Fossils (Viking, 2016) and, with Stephen J. Pyne, The Last Lost World: Ice Ages, Human Origins, and the Invention of the Pleistocene (Penguin, 2012).

An absorbing meditation on an object of lasting cultural significance.

• Introduction. Bookshelf: What's In a Name? Chapter 1. From Medieval to Modern: Bookshelves in Chains Chapter 2. The Things that Go On a Bookshelf Chapter 3. Bookshelves That Move Chapter 4. Bookshelves as Signs and Symbols Chapter 5. The Life Cycle of a Bookshelf Conclusion. The Plural Futures of Bookshelves Bibliography Acknowledgements

Lydia Pyne (PhD) is a freelance writer, editor, historian, and Research Fellow in the Institute for Historical Studies at the University of Texas at Austin, USA. She is a contributing editor for The Appendix and a reviewer and essayist for NewPages and New York Journal of Books. She is the author of Seven Skeletons: The Evolution of the World's Most Famous Human Fossils (Viking, 2016) and, with Stephen J. Pyne, The Last Lost World: Ice Ages, Human Origins, and the Invention of the Pleistocene (Penguin, 2012).

An absorbing meditation on an object of lasting cultural significance.

• Introduction. Bookshelf: What's In a Name? Chapter 1. From Medieval to Modern: Bookshelves in Chains Chapter 2. The Things that Go On a Bookshelf Chapter 3. Bookshelves That Move Chapter 4. Bookshelves as Signs and Symbols Chapter 5. The Life Cycle of a Bookshelf Conclusion. The Plural Futures of Bookshelves Bibliography Acknowledgements