"The book is like the spoon: once invented, it cannot be bettered". (Umberto Eco). These days it is almost impossible to get away from discussions of whether the 'book' will survive the digital revolution. Blogs, tweets and newspaper articles on the subject appear daily, many of them repetitive, most of them admitting they don't know what will happen. Amidst the twittering, the thoughts of Jean-Claude Carriere and Umberto Eco come as a breath of fresh air. There are few people better placed to discuss the past, present and future of the book. Both avid book collectors with a deep understanding of history, they have explored through their work the many and varied ways ideas have been represented through the ages. This thought-provoking book takes the form of a long conversation in which Carriere and Eco discuss everything from what can be defined as the first book to what is happening to knowledge now that infinite amounts of information are available at the click of a mouse. En route there are delightful digressions into personal anecdote. We find out about Eco's first computer and the book Carriere is most sad to have sold. Readers will close this entertaining book feeling they have had the privilege of eavesdropping on an intimate discussion between two great minds. And while, as Carriere says, the one certain thing about the future is that it is unpredictable, it is clear from this conversation that, in some form or other, the book will survive.

安贝托·艾柯，让-克洛德·卡里埃尔，一个被誉为二十世纪后半期最耀眼的意大利学者和作家，享誉世界的哲学家、符号学家、历史学家和小说家，一个是法国电影泰斗、法国国家电影学院创始人；一个是少有的将精深学术与玄奥小说变成畅销书、作品被翻译成三十五种文字之多的作家，一个是《布拉格之恋》、《铁皮鼓》等八十多部经典电影剧本的创作者，西班牙电影大师布努埃尔最青睐的编剧。　　两位对话者除了同样嗜书如命之外，同是古书珍本爱好者，对书籍代表的人类文明进程有着深刻的理解，对书籍在当下的变局和处境也有洞烛幽徽的观察。　　纸本书来日来临？网络时代，书幸耶？不幸耶？书是否忠实反映人类天才的创造？记忆如何运行，图书馆怎样分类？书凭什么可以经世流传？书太多了怎么办？如何谈论没读过的书……谈古溯今，纵横捭阖，艾柯、卡里埃尔坐拥书城，带你穿越从纸莎手稿到电子书籍的历史，漫谈他们的藏书故事，他们的阅读难题。