The Lives of Books
A Survey | 75 Years of Bibliothek Suhrkamp
Edited by Katharina Raabe and Frank Wegner
The Lives of Books / Leben der Bücher
A Survey | 75 Years of Bibliothek Suhrkamp
Edited by Katharina Raabe and Frank Wegner
The Lives of Books is an anthology about how books are written, produced, and collected today – and it tries to give an answer to questions such as: Where am I, when I’m writing? Why do people only (or never) write by hand? What kind of people are writers, and who do they actually write for? What does a writing brain do? How can we change things through writing? Does writing give us access to freedom? Why not just let AI do the writing? And how does what has been written take on its...
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The Lives of Books is an anthology about how books are written, produced, and collected today – and it tries to give an answer to questions such as: Where am I, when I’m writing? Why do people only (or never) write by hand? What kind of people are writers, and who do they actually write for? What does a writing brain do? How can we change things through writing? Does writing give us access to freedom? Why not just let AI do the writing? And how does what has been written take on its physical form in typography and design?
The second part of the book is about collecting, arranging, and grouping, about the relationships between books. Who stands next to whom, how do books in a library – such as those in Suhrkamp’s iconic Bibliothek Suhrkamp – speak to each other, creating a »good neighbourhood«, to borrow a term from Aby Warburg. Who comes up with these neighbourhoods? What are labyrinthine libraries? What would make a good travelling library? Why are libraries destroyed? What are the pros and cons of digital libraries?
The authors gathered together in this volume – from the fields of art, literature, philosophy, sociology, legal studies, and neuroscience – explore the material, political, and anthropological origins of books and the diverse forms of their potentially inexhaustible life.
With contributions by: Carolin Amlinger, Juri Andruchowytsch, Hannes Bajohr, Joanna Bator, Fritz Breithaupt, Sophie Calle, Ann Cotten, Philippe Descola, Friedrich Forssman, Rainald Goetz, Durs Grünbein, Maren Kames, Maylis de Kerangal, Ozan Zakariya Keskinkiliç, Susanne Lange, Ben Lerner, Steffen Mau, Steffen Martus, Kateryna Mishchenko, Christoph Möllers, Marion Poschmann, David van Reybrouck, Carlos Spoerhase, András Visky, and Maxim Znak.
The second part of the book is about collecting, arranging, and grouping, about the relationships between books. Who stands next to whom, how do books in a library – such as those in Suhrkamp’s iconic Bibliothek Suhrkamp – speak to each other, creating a »good neighbourhood«, to borrow a term from Aby Warburg. Who comes up with these neighbourhoods? What are labyrinthine libraries? What would make a good travelling library? Why are libraries destroyed? What are the pros and cons of digital libraries?
The authors gathered together in this volume – from the fields of art, literature, philosophy, sociology, legal studies, and neuroscience – explore the material, political, and anthropological origins of books and the diverse forms of their potentially inexhaustible life.
With contributions by: Carolin Amlinger, Juri Andruchowytsch, Hannes Bajohr, Joanna Bator, Fritz Breithaupt, Sophie Calle, Ann Cotten, Philippe Descola, Friedrich Forssman, Rainald Goetz, Durs Grünbein, Maren Kames, Maylis de Kerangal, Ozan Zakariya Keskinkiliç, Susanne Lange, Ben Lerner, Steffen Mau, Steffen Martus, Kateryna Mishchenko, Christoph Möllers, Marion Poschmann, David van Reybrouck, Carlos Spoerhase, András Visky, and Maxim Znak.
2026, 320 pages