Review: Printer's Error: Irreverent Stories from Book History

Printer's Error: Irreverent Stories from Book History by Rebecca Romney
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

How do you talk about history, the history of books nonetheless, and make it sound interesting? If your answer was to get someone that is considered the antique book expert with the most pop-culture appeal and pair them with...someone else who wrote a young adult novel once...then you'd come to the conclusion of husband and wife duo Rebecca Romney and her lesser-known husband J.P.

Not to discredit J.P. of course. The reason I was so interested in this book was that when Googling Rebecca I had seen that she had written something and as she's witty and fascinating on screen I thought this would be astounding. It is. Although I do have an issue with the lack of information I could dig up on the book itself. It wasn't until I had it in my hands that I realized J.P. was even involved with it. Everything I'd seen online mentioned Rebecca wrote a book. Nothing more. Once I started to look up who J.P. was and followed the trail I found more references to him in relation to Printer's Error. This may seem unimportant to you but it does make a world of a difference.

Books written by multiple authors that are one piece and not separate shorter stories lead me to question which author wrote which bit. Some writing styles can flow together seamlessly. Other times you can pick up who wrote what relatively easily. Good Omens is an obvious example where I can tell what Terry Pratchett wrote and what Neil Gaiman came up with. That also has to do with how that specific book was written. I did manage to find one reference, either an article or a question that was asked of Rebecca on a social network. I cannot remember which offhand. She stated that the book was worked on equally with both of them penning the chapters. J.P. would write the biographical information and she would handle the technical aspects. Truthfully, I feel as if the bulk of the book was written by J.P. based on what I've seen from Rebecca both in how she acts on T.V. as well as how she speaks on Social Media. The focus on her may be a good way to sell the book and as a husband and wife team, she easily could have guided the whole thing BUT from how it is written there is a clear .... immaturity.

This is not a boring book. It is a book filled with historical information but filled with present-day references. It doesn't sound like you are in a lecture as much as in a coffee shop listening to a guy with a man-bun rattling off trivia while holding bubble tea in one hand and an FYE bag full of Funko Pop figures in the other. A lot of people have voiced their disdain for the language of this book. Look, I am a 32-year-old male brought up in the digital age. I have a cruel sense of humor and I bathe in immaturity. I was fine with all of it. It made the book more appealing to me. I'm completely willing to read a book that is serious and full of historical fact after historical fact. That wouldn't put me off. I was admittedly surprised when the jokes started to appear and the lightheartedness of the conversation took over. It was much appreciated though.

"All this could have been avoided if Gutenberg had just printed his motherfucking name on his motherfucking books."

The people discussed within the 12 chapters are Gutenberg, Johannes Trithemius, Thomas More, Shakespeare, William Blake, Mary Wollstonecraft, Charles Dickens, Mercator, Benjamin Franklin. and more. The above quote comes from the Gutenberg section which was largely about how nobody originally credited him for the invention of the printing press. This is the type of dialogue you will come across and I understand if people are put off by profanity and yes, the book tends to skew towards a younger audience who would understand the side comments the authors' throw-in. If I have my facts correct, Trithemius is a monk who spoke out against the printing press in favor of handwritten manuscripts and it is in one of his own printed works, because he is a man of contradictions, that he points out Gutenberg as the original inventor. Gutenberg, if you couldn't tell, didn't exactly flaunt his work. It took a much longer time to find out that he published a specific version of the bible and which exact version that was.

The book covers a select number of topics and is a very short read. Nevertheless, I am embarrassed to say that it took me two weeks to read what amounts to under 300 pages of the actual book with the rest being notes, an index, and acknowledgments. And this comes as I found it quite enjoyable. I cannot explain what happened but I did make it through to the end. Unharmed, and a little bit wiser. Some of the stories I already knew from other things I've seen such as the tale of Charles Dickens visiting America, hating it, and complaining about not getting compensated fairly because Americans liked to pirate foreign books. Newsflash: Nothing has changed. Just this morning I was talking with an author about his book sales and not two minutes later discovered his recently published novel on one of the many sites that the internet will never be rid of. Back to the book, Benjamin Franklin's chapter on how he made all of his money and started a massive printing empire in America was also common knowledge to me.

In the very beginning, there's a great story about a forger named Marino Massimo De Caro who himself was a rare book dealer. He managed to fake a copy of Galileo's work and sell it for a large amount of money AFTER scholars looked over it and confirmed the book was genuine. It took a Professor from the University of Georgia to realize later on that portions of this book did not add up. The scholars had to admit their fault to much embarrassment and De Caro was arrested. It's a high stake, thrilling, and comical intro to a book that would venture into religious topics shortly after. Anything religious tends to divert my attention elsewhere. Luckily, even those stories are worthwhile and I'd even say fun. William Blake's section was the weirdest. From things like God staring at him through a window when he was a boy to angels sitting in trees to communicating with his deceased brother and figuring out how to perfect Relief Etching and Engraving. He also claimed to be able to see the ghost of a flea and drew it as a 6-foot demon carrying a bowl of blood. What? Yes. These are the odd types of things I've found out in this book.

It is a good starting point for someone who really wants to learn about the history of books, printing, and some of the important aspects of the printed world. From it's invention to how it is advertised and became the household commodity we know it as today. We learn about how literature ties in and clashes with religion. We follow people persecuted and imprisoned for printing the wrong things and spreading the wrong information. We learn technical details about bookbinding and how the printing of maps changed rapidly as more details about or world became known. There is something in this for everyone. The sad part for me is now I have to hunt down other resources to learn more about the history of literature and printing as it is a topic I am interested in and I know most of what I'll find won't be as carefree as this.

I hope at some point there is a followup. More Irrelevant Stories from Book History sounds like a great title.


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