Mark Kurlansky

By now the folks who follow me here likely know that I have a love for Mark Kurlansky’s approach to writing about history - tracing a single object’s impact on the world - as he did with “Salt” and “Milk”. In this book, the author turns his attention away from edibles and toward a seemingly more mundane subject - the history of paper! I suspected there would be some interesting historical tidbits about this fibrous stuff, but in this work Kurlansky explains that it’s not the paper itself that is the focus of the examination, but the various methods of communication that humanity has employed through the use of the stuff. From writing on hides, to parchment and velum, to handcrafted art paper, to more modern printing, and even Japanese nori (seaweed paper)… Kurlansky weaves a story. I particularly liked the argument that he repeatedly makes about technology not changing society - but that technology is developed in response to changing societies. “Paper” is another fascinating trip through time, and while it may not be quite as engaging as the aforementioned books on Salt or Milk, it still holds a lot of interesting moments.… (mere)

I became acquainted with Kurlansky's writing when his book Salt was recommended to me. That novel was so expertly crafted, I found myself being amazed by interesting history just about every paragraph. It's the type of story you would want to return to several times. Milk! is written in much the same style, but isn't quite that engaging in practice. This may be because Kurlansky has peppered the book with a greater number of recipes, or it may just be that the history of Milk and dairy products isn't quite as sordid and dark as it is with Salt. That said, there's been a long journey between humanity and milk, whether that's cows milk, human milk, goats milk, or milk from some other animal... and I still had several of those "Oh Wow!" moments. While this might not be as epic scaled as Salt, it's still a strong labour of love, and worth reading.… (mere)