What has struck more interest for me was how things have changed. Starting with the way a book was made, which as we saw started with a long process that required a lot of expertise. Gutenberg’s machine press was the start of it all. However, it did not allow for just anyone to be able to make a book like today. Starting with the first book he made, which was the bible, he restricted what was being produced to a certain group of people who could afford it and could read it. On the other hand, he opened up the opportunity for more work to be produced and at a faster scale. Nowadays, it seems like relatively anyone can have access to a book of their liking. Also, anyone can write a book and get it published without having to invest a lot of time or money on it. There is a good side to this which is the expansion topics that are being studied, and the universality of sharing a book with someone who does not live in the same place or does not speak the same language.
I also kept thinking about all the mistakes that can be made and get replicated during both the hand press and machine-press periods. If there was a mistake on whether spelling or material it was not easy to correct it. However, today, mistakes are being corrected by our machines all the time. Just as I am writing this, I get a red underline below all the words I misspell. There are even some online websites like Grammarly that will allow us to correct our grammatical mistakes. There has truly been an advancement in how technology has impacted the way we read and write. But it is important and compelling to know how it all started.