Keith Houston talks about the past and present of the book, which has remained a remarkably consistent form since its invention millennia ago. We talk about bookiness, elements of a book, ebooks, and emoji, among other topics.

Keith is the author of Shady Characters and The Book, and maintains an active blog at which he posts ongoing articles on his current subject of interest. Right now, that’s been a long-running series on emoji that’s great reading, like all of his work.