Sign up for our newsletters to receive our Best of 2024 ezine!

Connection: The Wonder of the Ordinary

Summary |  Excerpt |  Reviews |  Beyond the Book |  Read-Alikes |  Genres & Themes |  Author Bio

On Paper by Nicholas A. Basbanes

On Paper

The Everything of Its Two-Thousand-Year History

by Nicholas A. Basbanes
  • BookBrowse Review:
  • Critics' Consensus (4):
  • First Published:
  • Oct 15, 2013, 448 pages
  • Paperback:
  • Jul 2014, 448 pages
  • Rate this book

About This Book

Connection: The Wonder of the Ordinary

This article relates to On Paper

Print Review

John Muir said, "When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe." In On Paper, Nicholas Basbanes centers on something – paper - and makes it a hub whose spokes can touch everything else on Earth.

BananaCoalMany micro-histories have been published in the last few years, and they are as varied as they are popular. Banana by Dan Koeppel is one, Coal by Barbara Freese is another. The list goes on and on. What is it that readers find so fascinating about these in-depth examinations of a single thing? Perhaps the most tangible reason is that these items are familiar to our lives – we know them inside and out, we use them every day – and because of these relationships, we are intrigued to know more about them. As a result, they become a gateway to trekking through a broader scope of history. But there may be another reason we find these micro-histories so compelling - because they point to a world where everything is connected to everything else.

Among the many micro-histories written in the past few years, Mark Kurlansky wrote two books, one about salt, an element essential to the survival of life as we know it, and another about cod, a fish which has helped human civilizations survive and even prosper.

saltLife cannot exist without salt. Even after we left the sea, some 350 million years ago, we carried our salt water within our bodies - science estimates that the salt concentration in our body fluids is the same as that of the sea. Animals are drawn to salt, indeed need it - whether there is land that supports life salt can also be found. Humans are also drawn to salt - European cities that begin with the prefix "sal-" or "hal-" or the suffix "-wich," which are Latin Greek, and Old English roots for "salt," testify to the salt that made habitation possible. We look for salt both within our own bodies and in the environment our bodies choose to inhabit.

So salt is one element that connects us all. Cod is another, and we could just as easily examine its history, as Kurlansky does, or a number of other wild animals to trace human migration and settlement. Regardless, all of these elements lead us to the same place. We look at the animals upon which we depend, and we understand another connection among us all.

interdependenceWhat all this points toward is an interdependent world in which everything is interconnected with everything else. This is what these micro-histories might, ultimately, teach us. For us humans, it creates a paradigm from which to shape our lives, our societies, and our relation with the Earth and all Her children. Buddhism has taught the interdependence of all reality for millennia, the simple realization that as bees depend on flowers and flowers depend on bees, so every sentient being depends on other beings, who, in turn, depend on other beings and so on to infinity. Therefore, while one lives alone, all are part of the whole, and, thus, the welfare of one depends on the health of the whole.

First image of salt from Humans Are Healthy
Illusration from the To Do Institute

Filed under Cultural Curiosities

Article by Bob Sauerbrey

This "beyond the book article" relates to On Paper. It originally ran in January 2014 and has been updated for the July 2014 paperback edition. Go to magazine.

This review is available to non-members for a limited time. For full access become a member today.
Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Top Picks

  • Book Jacket: The Love Elixir of Augusta Stern
    The Love Elixir of Augusta Stern
    by Lynda Cohen Loigman
    Lynda Cohen Loigman's delightful novel The Love Elixir of Augusta Stern opens in 1987. The titular ...
  • Book Jacket: Small Rain
    Small Rain
    by Garth Greenwell
    At the beginning of Garth Greenwell's novel Small Rain, the protagonist, an unnamed poet in his ...
  • Book Jacket: Daughters of Shandong
    Daughters of Shandong
    by Eve J. Chung
    Daughters of Shandong is the debut novel of Eve J. Chung, a human rights lawyer living in New York. ...
  • Book Jacket: The Women
    The Women
    by Kristin Hannah
    Kristin Hannah's latest historical epic, The Women, is a story of how a war shaped a generation ...

BookBrowse Book Club

Book Jacket
In Our Midst
by Nancy Jensen
In Our Midst follows a German immigrant family’s fight for freedom after their internment post–Pearl Harbor.
Who Said...

Read the best books first, or you may not have a chance to read them at all.

Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!

Wordplay

Big Holiday Wordplay 2024

Enter Now

Your guide toexceptional          books

BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.