An extremely engaging meditation on the history of alphabetical order that also explores the history of language, letters and the joy of writing and organization. A stand-out for anyone that loves words and the way their letters are placed.

If you are interested in the evolution of language and how it may have shaped history, this is the book to read. The writer’s research is obviously thorough and there are fun, quirky facts spread throughout the text which were certainly the highlight for me. However, this is certainly not a coffee table book; this is a book you can read at leisure, with a healthy dose of patience and most certainly for research on all sorts of aspects regarding language & order.

Thank you to NetGalley & the publisher for this digital copy.

I have to admit that I never even considered why we order so many things alphabetically, what people did before that, and what people who don't have an alphabet like ours do to put things in order. Judith Flanders answers all these questions, and that is interesting enough, but she also goes off on side trips now and then that are also fascinating. I enjoyed learning that Danish soldiers in the 19th century were graded according to literacy and there were six levels involving ability write and to read writing or printing. Which makes you think, just what does it mean to be literate? There is also some discussion about Dewey and his decimal system and other forms of organizing and their pluses and minuses. Sometimes the subject at hand was not as interesting to me, but I just skimmed ahead and it was never long before some other intriguing topic came up. The footnotes are a treat and the bibliography is a wealth of leads for further reading. I want to look up a few of the books about the early days of the telephone and operators and telephone numbers. (Thanks to Basic Books and NetGalley for a digital review copy.)

The first few chapters of this were quite interesting; letters vs symbols, but both count. I read some chapters and skimmed the rest because because this became more about organization of language then letters came way letter. Obviously the author did a lot of research about this subject and you cam tell as a reader she has a passion for the subject.

Overall a decent read if you are interested in the history of language.

Thanks to Netgalley, Judith Flamders and Perseus Book Basic Books for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Available: 10/20/20

“A Place for Everything” grabbed my attention with its description: it is “a look at the history of…ordering and classification, at how sorting came to be, in particular via the alphabet.” As someone who loves history, I was very optimistic at how this book would turn out as it was a subject matter I had not seen previously.

Historian Judith Flanders goes into detail about how texts were sorted throughout history, and throughout the world, from the ancient period to modern day, and the role the alphabet played (or did not play) in this.

I did enjoy the first few chapters of the book, especially the discussion of organizational sorting systems in the ancient and medieval worlds, but after that, I struggled to finish it. Overall, I found it too pedantic to be enjoyable. Even with my background as a historian, I fought the urge to drift off as the author spent pages closely examining everything from the origins of the word “archive” to how the Benedictines’ lives were devoted to reading and studying to the organization of the White pages in such detail that it took away from the overall enjoyment of the book. While I believe the original premise of the book was sound, the author’s intensive focus on the minutia killed the enjoyment factor of a potentially fascinating topic. It was missing the forest through the trees type of experience: the details overtook the book’s premise: the transformation of sorting and the role the alphabet did (finally) play in it.

The book is very well researched, and the author should be praised for her attention to detail. However, if you are looking for an easier read or something more along the lines of “popular history,” than this book should be skipped.