'Codex' is a fancy word for 'book', but useful because it distinguishes the physical form from the text it contains. Thus a codex, a set of bound pages, is distinct from a scroll (which is what it supplanted) and from a pile of unbound leaves (a typed manuscript, for example), although either of those could contain the same words and, in one sense, be the same book. The codex will be with us for a while yet, but it is losing ground. Small personal codices (pocket diaries, address books) are easy prey to BlackBerries and iPhones. Spreadsheets have replaced bound ledgers. When every child has a laptop, textbooks will be less in evidence. At some point soon hand-held readers loaded with e-texts will begin to replace the commuter's paperback and library book.

LRB 23 July 2009 | PDF Download