I love an index. I love a glossary. As a former school librarian, this book took me to my happy place. It offers a fascinating history of life between the folios. A potentially dry subject made interesting with surprising information and facts about the importance of these pernickety lists.

This book is not just about the history of the index, but also about the history of reading and the evolution of the book from the scrolls, manuscripts and the codex before the the invention of printing – how they were produced and used. I was interested in reading it as I’m an ex-librarian and cataloguer, later an assistant in a county record office where a large part of my job involved indexing. If you think like me that an index is an indispensable part of a non fiction book then you’ll enjoy this book, which is both informative and entertaining. And I often wish fiction books were indexed too – one of the advantages of an e-book is that you can search the text, even better if it has the X-Ray feature.

It explains the difference between the index and the table of contents, goes into the evolution of page numbers and the problems of alphabetisation. This is not a dry, factual account it is written with humour and insights into the past, using examples from historical texts, and from indexes complied as satirical attacks on their authors. I never knew indexes had been used as weapons! Nor did I know that some works of fiction had been indexed in the past – full details in Chapter 6 ‘Indexing Fictions: Naming was Always a Difficult Art’, quoting from Lewis Carroll’s works. Carroll was fascinated with indexes, leaning particularly towards the whimsical, using his logician’s wit.

Neither is it stuck in the far distant past, Duncan brings it up to date in the digital age and the ubiquity of the search engine with the rise of anxiety that this is changing our brains, shortening our attention spans and eroding our capacity for memory. But this, Duncan explains is nothing new as the history of the index shows that there have always been fears that nobody will read properly any more when they could just use an index to replace the ways of close reading. The ways we read have changed over the generations.

The Index, a History of the is simply fascinating.

This is a very thorough book - not overly academic or obfuscating but just thorough, including in the print version two indexes, one machine generated, one human generated, taking us from the very earliest manuscripts up to the indexing of the Internet. As is said in the reviews, it's affectionate and Duncan is obviously very engaged with his topic.

We move from the start of indexing, done by individuals in manuscripts then being reproducible in print form, introducing the concept of the locator (not always a page number, then or now) and alphabetical order. There's a very thorough section on the addressing of beefs through the index, both with other writers and between the indexer and the writer themselves, and it goes right up to date with machine indexing and the indexing of the Internet.

A thorough book that fills a gap, is accessible and does an admirable job.

My full review on my blog https://librofulltime.wordpress.com/2021/09/16/book-review-dennis-duncan-index-a-history-of-the/

An interesting premise for a book which entertains in parts but also comes across as rather academic in others. Aside from the history of the evolution of the idea of the index there are also anecdotes about its use. There are good explanations of the different types of index from a concordance which logs every word to an index which can prove to be very subjective if the index creator liked or disliked the subject matter. The index has also proved a matter or life or death to some early creators as it was considered a matter of heresy if some words were altered in any way.

With thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Press UK – Allen Lane, Particular, Pelican, Penguin Classics for a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Today we take indexes for granted, particularly with the digitisation of so much material & the ease of searching, but there really is a fascinating history to them & this book takes us back to a time before alphabet based organisation, before page numbers and before Google (other search engines are available!). We assume this is back to the time of scrolls & papyrus, but tables of contents & indexes were still relatively unknown throughout the first 200 years of printed books. I was particularly fascinated by the concept of page numbering, and the obvious issues around folios/printing had never occurred to me, but it makes total sense!
It looks at subject indexes, tables of content, concordances & even the politics surrounding indexes - surely a simple index cannot cause so much controversy? Of course the book brings us back to modern day with an insightful look into how internet search engines work, and effective use of hashtags (or the pitfalls of poor hashtags!)
The research that has gone into the book is intensive and the addition of images to support the content is appreciated.
Overall, this is quite a niche book and some readers will find it very dry, though there is an underlying humour. It will possibly appeal less to the average reader-for-pleasure, but makes fascinating reading for anyone who is interesting the history of books/printing etc. I can see it becoming essential academic reading (eg for university students).
I thoroughly enjoyed reading it, and whilst I had never given indexing a thought before reading this book, but now have a completely new understanding of the importance – and skill - of a good indexer and I will never again take the last few pages of a book for granted!

Funny that I thought this book was about indexed = banned literature, but surprise it´s about indexes of books and other writings which is quite a niche product. it´s definitely written for experts, so some parts turn out dry, but otherwise it´s interesting if not always easy to read. Themes include the alphabet, various indexes, concordances etc. combined with the history of reading (with the finger on the page and loud!) and writing till today´s googling and indexes as art. A pity that already in the first chapter there´s a conservative view on men and women, and there are also spoilers of books, f.e. Agatha Christie´s ABC Murder, so be careful about that!
Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for an ARC ebook in exchange for an honest review.

Who knew a book about the humble index could be so fascinating and so funny. I admit I love books, reading them, holding them, searching through them, browsing for them, you get the idea. This is a book about books, or at least the last few pages of books. The history of the index sounds dry and academic, it is anything but in the hands of Mr Duncan.

We have stories of people who didn’t like the slant of a book, so indexed it to suit their own views. Indexes being used to ridicule people by pointing out their strange foibles. Stories which are just indexes. Thought provoking questions - how to index poetry? Should we index fiction? Is the index just a tool for a lazy student who doesn’t want to read a whole book, like they should?

Interesting stuff about how if you have a scribe copying a book and he’s using larger size paper and copies the text faithfully, the index won’t match up to the new page numbers… how indexes only worked after the invention of page numbers… how learned periodicals started being indexed by academics so they could stay current with their fields. Also, although indexing software has removed the need for paper, scissors, and glue, you still need competent, educated people to read the book and decide what goes in the index. It is truly an art and a science.

“The professional indexer, learned, vigilant, goes before us, levelling mountains and beating paths so that we, time-poor students at the finger post, can arrive swiftly but unruffled at the passage - the quotation, the datum, the knowledge - we need.”

I really enjoyed this, more than I thought I would, and I will look at book indexes with a new respect. Recommended if you love books about books, about the history of books, or about quirky interesting concepts.

I was given a copy of this book by Netgalley in return for an honest review.

Thank you to Netgalley and publisher's Penguin Press UK - Allen Lane, for this review copy. This is my unbiased review of the author's work and style.
A fascinatingly curious book professionally researched and written. Until reading this I had naively used indices without giving them a second thought. That is to say, if they existed in a volume, I only took issue when there was a mistake. My hobby is cooking, and I grew up with indexed cooking books without questioning the existence of the index and most of my tomes are annotated with my own pencilled scribbles where I failed to find the original topic or what was there was wrongly ascribed. Imagine the shock to my system when I bought my first North American Cookery Book! No index and the contents list laid out by meal title but not alphabetical! I have spent hours creating my own simple index cursing the publishers.
So, the quirkily titled “Index, A History of the” was such a refreshing read and its details of the science are so thorough I have taken the oath never to buy a non-indexed cookery book again.
I have awarded this book five stars and would happily give it six were it allowed.

Happy publication day to Index, A History if the by Dennis Duncan.

An Index, something most of us have used hundreds of times but have we never think about. Nearly every time I bake I use the index to find the recipe. My history degree would have been a nightmare if my refrence books didn't have indexes. The number of times I picked up a book inches think only to find half a dozen relevant pages, just imagine having to read the entire thing just for them *shudders*.

In the book Duncan explores history through the invention of the index. We see why it was created, how it was used and how its changed over time. Brought up to date with the incision of search engines and hashtags, which most of us would never relate to indexes this book makes you learn and think. Full of fascinating information this book doesn't just tell us about books but the society and culture that formed them.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Index, A history of the - covers a subject that I never considered before. I really don't remember the last time I used one, if ever,and to my shame I always skip it altogether in the books I read(ups :p).
For the little consideration I've given it until now, the index has a fascinating and at times surprising history.
And I say surprising because for a tool that is so useful, it's almost inconceivable that is has been at the heart of so many controversies. But also surprising it's use in quite a few very imaginative ways from a forms of satire to novels.

I've thoroughly enjoyed Dennis Duncan's writing style. His writing is engrossing, fun, and easy going seen the subject is so niche/bookish. Despite talking about such a particular matter, the author manages to build such a broad and comprehensive history. I really loved his ability to put everything in perspective, to not only see the broader picture, but to convince his reader of it too.

This book is everything I look for in non-fiction. It's fascinating, funny and endlessly useful. Recommended for all lovers of the English language.

Fascinating, comprehensive and witty exploration of the history of the index. How and why the index was first created and its changes over time, including its essential uses in printing and for computer search engines, along with insights into the evolution of language and glimpses of ancient and more modern documents.

An Obvious Passion…
The index. Something that, as readers, we perhaps take for granted. Something that we expect to be there and that is useful but, perhaps, we give it no further thought than that. This illuminating book gives us the history of that index. Interesting, perhaps little known, and often fascinating, written with an obvious passion and a sometime dry wit. A very enjoyable and enlightening read.

Well, who knew that the humble index had a whole back story and history of it's own?? I certainly didn't but I do now. A really fascinating read, a stroll through history, I learned quite a few new facts from reading this, this will make a fab present for anyone who enjoys learning new things.

A fascinating read all about indexes and categorising. It is hard to imagine a time when things were not alphabetised and there were no page numbers or any general ordering system- however it’s not so long ago as we might think. Duncan takes us back through history to explore how the index was created and the different forms, variations and uses behind it to reach where it is today. This book is jam packed with information and it is very clear a lot of research has gone into it. I especially enjoyed reading how indexes have been used politically. A book for anyone interested in words, linguistics or cultural history, systems or simply organisation.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

How to write a review of a history of the index? Well, it could be in the form of a table of contents or even an index of the parts of the book that I found fascinating but neither would do this book justice as I found it fascinating from its table of contents right through to its notes and index.

Therefore, if, like me, you enjoy books about things that we all take for granted, this is most certainly a book for you.

A fascinating book, although perhaps for a niche audience. I knew nothing about the history of the practice of constructing indexes and, while I vaguely knew that some authors had used indexes humorously and satirically, the political and social aspects had never really occurred to me. The author's style is engaging and the underpinning scholarship is impressive in its detail. But I found reading an electronic version very constraining and I would have preferred to be able to turn the pages of the two indexes.

At one stage in my life decided that an indexing qualification would be a useful professional expertise to acquire. However, following the correspondence course offered by the Society of Indexers proved to be too great a challenge in a small house with lively young children who saw boxes of index cards as interesting playthings so I never completed it. Since then, I have always admired a good index. For my first book, the publisher required an index to be submitted with the manuscript: I was quite keen to do it myself but time constraints forced me to use the basic software supplied with an early version of Word. I doubt whether this has hampered the small handful of readers who found their way to this slim volume. For my second, and last, book I was delighted to discover that the publisher would commission the index. The topic is not mainstream and my anxiety as to whether they would find a suitably knowledgeable person was assuaged when it arrived, it is a very good index - indeed, the indexer should have had a credit and had the production process timing allowed I would have included his name in the acknowledgements.

For readers who enjoy this book I recommend Anthony Grafton's book on the footnote.

Thanks to Netgalley for an ARC

An interesting and well researched book on one of those subjects most of us take for granted and never really think about. I did feel that, quite rightly, it was probably aimed at a more knowledgeable reader than one with a casual interest like me though and I imagine they are likely to enjoy it more.
Thank you to netgalley and penguin books for an advance copy of this book

Surprise surprise, this is quite a niche book! I'll be honest, there were some passages that were just a wee bit too dry and dusty for me. But on the whole I enjoyed this. The author has quite a dry sense of humour along with an obvious passion for the subject which ensures that this is a curious but enlightening little book.

An unusual topic but illuminating. Demonstrates how much we use the system in our every day lives. The historical tale is fascinating.