This ‘(re)turn’ is characterised by the growing popularity of theories such as new materialism and media archaeology.

This coming together of previously rather disconnected subject areas has been taking place alongside a what has been called ‘(re)turn’ to a focus on the materiality of media (which rather underestimates the continuous tradition of attention to the material (i.e. These scholars all combine insights from a variety of humanities’ disciplines-but mainly also media theory and book history-to study the book as a material medium in and through its myriad forms, relations and contexts. Katherine Hayles’s work has been incremental in paving the way-as has been Johanna Drucker’s research for example-but lately some very interesting new work has emerged that positions itself at the intersection of book history, media studies, and the digital humanities, sparked on by people such as Lisa Gitelman, Jessica Pressman, Whitney Trettien, Lori Emerson and Matthew Kirschenbaum. Yet recently media theorists have shown a growing interest in the book as a medium and hence an object of study. However, the latter-media studies-has been quite slow in its uptake of the book as an object of study, where as a field it has predominantly focused on audio-visual media. Published 28 January 2016.The book has always been studied within a wide variety of fields, from (book) history, bibliography and literature, to library and information science, publishing, and media studies. Object Lessons is published in partnership with an essay series in the The Atlantic. 'From the earliest shelves in ancient Syria to donkey mobile libraries in contemporary Ethiopia, Bookshelf is an absorbing meditation on an object of lasting cultural significance. With a shrewd eye toward this particular moment in the history of books, Pyne takes the reader on a tour of the bookshelf that leads critically to this juncture: amid rumors of the death of book culture, why is the life of the bookshelf in full bloom? Writer and historian Lydia Pyne finds bookshelves to be holders not just of books but of so many other things: values, vibes, and verbs that can be contained and displayed in the buildings and rooms of contemporary human existence.

One bookshelf can creak with character in a bohemian coffee shop and another can groan with gravitas in the Library of Congress. Every shelf is different and every bookshelf tells a different story.

Bookshelf by Lydia Pyne