Piper 2009

Piper, Andrew. Dreaming in Books: The Making of the Bibliographic Imagination in the Romantic Age. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2009.

Introduction: Bibliographic Subjects

"Hypothesis: All is Leaf." -- J. W. Goethe

books <--> literature

"Learning how to read books and how to want books did not simply occur through the technological, commercial, or legal conditions that made the growing proliferation of books possible. The making of such bibliographic fantasies was also importantly a product of the very narratives and symbolic operations contained within books as well. It was through romantic literature where individuals came to understand themselves." (4)

"bibliographic surplus" at the turn of the 19th century (5)

• • increasing diversity of books and bibliographic formats circulating
  • increasing homogeneity of geography; books translated across multiple sites