As avid bibliophile I expected to enjoy this history of the index even if the book bordered on the academic, but I ended up enjoying the author's voice and sense of humor.

History and reading are two of my favorite things to talk about, so a book about both is perfect for me. I loved that it didn't read like a textbook and I go listen as I did chores without getting lost. I will really be reading more from Dannis Duncan and picking up more audiobooks narrated by Neil Gardner.

Thank you Netgalley for letting me give my honest review

A history of the index as a concept and a technology. There were a lot of interesting and amusing tidbits in here, but in some parts I found myself zoning out. Some of the examples of index entries did not work very well in audio format.

As a librarian I am slightly biased in loving all things book themed and book related. I was fascinated to learn more about the index, and this book did not disappoint! Some nonfiction books can get a little mundane, but the information presented here was fascinating and plotted very well. I will suggest this to the librarians who run the nonfiction book club.

*received for free from netgalley for honest review* actually a pretty interesting book! i read it slower so it didn't get boring but i would read again.

I just started freelance indexing and was excited to download this audiobook about the craft. It provided a few tidbits into what makes a good index, but I didn't really care for the complete medieval histories of indexes. Which is on me, because that's what the book is literally about.

I thought this was such an interesting book- I love a good index and cringe when they are lacking or (gasp!) non-existent (like far too many children's nonfiction). I've taken an indexing class and found the whole process fascinating so I was interested in this as soon as I heard of it. This was a deep-dive into the history if the index and it was even more interesting and humorous than I would have expected. The author uses a narrative style that held my interest and helped keep the (his)tory flowing. The stories about the individual contributors the examples, the reasoning for different aspects and uses- all combined to make a very interesting and entertaining piece of work. The audio narrator did a great job- he read beautifully and the timing was perfect, the humor came through just right. Some of the examples would have been easier to follow in print, such as when he was listing things in an index and their page numbers. At times it could be a bit difficult to keep track, but that is only due to the change in format and probably the way my brain works as well. This could have been a dry topic, but the result is quite the opposite- funny, great storytelling, curious facts and people, all told in an inviting style. This is a bit of a niche title- I don't think my particular library community can justify the physical purchase at this time, but maybe we can get it in ebook or eaudiobook. It is something I will keep in mind for the future and something I will recommend to any writer, library employee, scholar, or anyone interested in book history.

Book is on the history of the index. Very informative. The title of the book explains what the book is about well. Really liked that audio book sounded like a how it's made episode.

So interesting and so well-written.


Review copy provided by publisher.

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The understated cleverness of the title gives a good idea of how the book will be: very British, very comprehensive, and interesting despite its seemingly dry subject matter. The author does a great job of showing how the index came to be (and the many innovations from alphabetical order to page numbers that had to be standardized to allow it to arise) and an even better way of how the index can be used as a tool of research, literature, obfuscation, and even political satire and attack. Highly recommended.

While I liked the premise of this book, I don't think it translated well to audiobook. I really enjoy books about books, and find the study of what makes these words on dead trees appeal to so many of us incredibly interesting. But there are many points in this audiobook where the narrator reads out index entries to make a point, that end up feeling drawn out and overdone. I began to wonder if the book was going to be just a bunch of lists without much content. In the physical book these lists are likely much more digestible, but having someone read out index entries feels like a struggle. This is likely just one of those instances where a good book doesn't always equal a good audiobook.

I usually enjoy reading obscure history books and origin stories especially those in the field of books/writing/languages, and so the book nerd in me was excited to get my hands on this one. I actually learned quite a bit from this book and there were some very interesting facts which were also educational. At the same time the author delved deep into topics that I felt dragged on and didn't feel as necessary to the overall story.

My go to is to pick the audiobook when possible as I love hearing the story come to life, and the narrator of this book was fantastic. His British accent was the absolute perfect choice to voice this story. Now saying that I don't think that the audiobook is the best form to consume this book because there are lots of areas where the narrator has to read out sections of indexes/indices which means he would read out several page numbers that quickly felt monotonous and didn't add anything to the story. If you were reading the physical or ebook form of this book you would be able to just skip over these numbers if you chose.

This one just wasn't my favourite. Maybe it's like an index where you search and only read the bits that are relevant to you. I think there is a group of people who will love this, but I don't think this will be a book that I recommend very often.

I love reading obscure history books especially those that are about books/writing/languages, so I was very excited to read this one. There are a lot of great tidbits in the book that were interesting and educational which means I learned a lot; however, there is also lots of excess and dragging on of topics that didn't seem necessary.

I don't say this very often, but I don't think this one is best read in audiobook form. My preference is usually to listen to the audiobook, but because this book has the narrator reading a lot of sections out of actual indices/indexes there is a lot of reading out of numbers which can get quite monotonous. I don't know if the numbers really added anything to the story, and if I was reading this in physical or ebook form I would be able to skip over reading the numbers part and just read the words. I will say that I did enjoy the narrator. He had the perfect British accent that went along great with the contents of the book.

This one just wasn't for me, and it would be a very select group of people who appreciate this so I probably won't recommend it much.

Thank you NetGalley and Tantor Audio for making an early edition of this audiobook available for review purposes.

This book is for librarians, history buffs, trivia enthusiasts, people reads or at least glance at indexes and references, nerdy people afflicted by mild cases of OCD needing things to be in order. I myself admit being some of these above. I was very excited to listen to this audiobook, especially it was highly praised when it was published in 2021. The book is full of interesting and funny tidbits from medieval time to current #hushtag digital indexing. I especially enjoyed sections of Lewis Carroll and Norman Mailer/William Buckley Jr.
While some topics are interesting, I found some sections do not translate very well on the audiobook, especially where the authors listing page or chapter numbers, and word counts. If this was a book or Ebook, you can visually glance over the texts and distill algorithm instantly (I suppose we index unknowingly) but this is hard to do on the audiobook and I started to get bored listening to numbers. Maybe I am a visual learner and want to see it rather than hearing about it. I might consider picking up physical copy or Ebook to get some of these essences that were missed on audiobook.

Index, A History of the is a fun and accessible look at the genesis and philosophy behind the humble (or not so humble) index capably examined by Dr. Dennis Duncan. Due out 15th Feb 2022 from W.W. Norton, it's 352 pages and will be available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats (hardcover available now). It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately.

This could have been a dry-as-dust straight rendering of a sometimes-unsung bit of biblio-history. It could have been a dull recitation of facts, and figures, and sources. It's anything but. There is a fair amount of history involved, but there's also a pervasive self-deprecating humour alongside the facts and figures. There are places which are slyly winking at the foibles of innumerable bookish sorts throughout the past; we're invited to grin indulgently alongside academic quarrels hundreds of years old, their original combatants long passed, but their registered grievances laid open for our perusal.There's philosophy and thought aplenty, and, I confess, very much about which I'd never stopped to ponder.

The book is full of extant examples of the genesis (of necessity and efficiency) of the humble index. There are thoughts about what an index really -is- and why it has the form it has. There's an interesting examination of atypical indexes (we're instructed that we should leave "indices" to the mathematicians and scientists) used as a narrative medium, and more. In short, everything we could really ask to know about the index, Dr. Duncan has anticipated and answered along with a fair bit I didn't even know that I wanted to know.

The book includes a number of illustrations as well as a cross referenced index (naturally) and full chapter notes and annotations. The chapter notes are likely worth the price of admission for anyone interested in the subject. I took notes during the read and harvested an impressive number of items which warranted further examination later. It's a niche book but will definitely appeal to readers interested in information science and bibliophilia. The author has clearly expended a prodigious amount of effort and he really does know his stuff.

The audiobook version has a run time of 8 hours 9 minutes and is capably narrated by Neil Gardner. Mr. Gardner has an "everyman" sort of slightly Southeast London accent (to my ear) and wouldn't raise an eyebrow as a bricklayer or lorry driver. I am sure that this was a completely intentional casting, and his voice brings a warmth and refreshingly accessible humour to the read. It's nice to listen to his voice which is emphatically not "posh" in this instance. That being said however, this is a VERY minutiae dense book. There are pages and pages and pages of figures and page numbers. It had to have been an absolutely daunting and gargantuan task to complete an audiobook version and it doesn't seem to have been a particularly practical exercise. For example, in the introduction, the author relates an acrimonious exchange between two 19th century historians which takes place in the index of one of the combatant's books and elucidates (in excruciating detail) how their educated expert opinions differ from one another's. The recitation takes the form of a long long list of specific examples with page numbers appended delineating the original author's opinion that his academic nemesis was a nincompoop. Again, the narrator was really good, but just the listing of page numbers and acerbic observations took more than 15 minutes to read aloud.

Five stars. This is well and deeply researched and engaging. (But audiobook readers might want to bring some extra endurance to the read).

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.