In this program, host Alberto Manguel uses the history of the written text—from hand-copied codex, to machine-printed book, to digital document—as a vehicle to address large-scale efforts to preserve the world’s literary heritage, a dual challenge involving a rapidly deteriorating corpus of old books and an overwhelming proliferation of blogs and other significant writings on the Internet. In addition, the implications of cell phone fiction and interactive online novels are discussed; the One Laptop per Child initiative, bringing online reading to the developing world, is praised; and concern over Google’s proprietary book digitization project, which would make the company the de facto owner of the planet’s largest cache of published writings, is expressed. A part of the series Empire of the Word: A Reader’s Journey
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