this is not the end of the book

You are invited to listen into a scholarly conversation about the role of books in society over the ages between two intellectual friends, or in Eco's style 'a book about books', which is at once erudite and entertaining, philosophical and personal.

The discussion crosses two thousand years of history from the age of papayrus to electronic media, and travels through different times and places, meeting real people and fictional characters. There is praise of stupidity as well as the analysis of the motives behind  book collecting and the reasons why certain times are more conducive to the creation of masterpieces.

We also learn why it 'took chickens almost a century to learn not to cross the road' and why our 'knowledge of the past comes from halfwits, fools and people with a grudge.' Moreover, the two thinkers explain why books have more memory than any other machine invented and the paradox behind an era obsessed with conservation and the fragility of long term media formats. A book can survive centuries of floods, catastrophes and pillages, yet a floppy disc is now unreadable.