Firstly, I don't think there can be any doubt how I feel about the importance of paper - my to-read list is at over 2,000 books for myself, and I even have a shelf for my daughter - 20 months old who loves to 'read' too.

Naturally, I was very interested in reading this, but the execution of said topic fell short of my expectations. I knew of course that paper had been invented in China, but I was not expecting half the book to be devoted to paper in China and felt those chapters became redundant after a while. Had I looked at the author bio prior to reading though, I would've seen he studied Chinese and this it makes sense. Additionally the author has written about the history of Chinese dynasties, so his knowledge is extensive, as clearly shown. But I was not interested in China's history - only as it pertained to the development of paper.

All in all it's not a bad book. It's very well-researched and it's clear the author out a lot of effort into it. But it's very dense and slow; for the all the attention lavished on China and how paper was used there, I'd have liked to have seen the same attention given to Europe. Obviously paper did not exist there as early as in Asia and even the Middle East, but the work to come out of that continent has equally as important. As I mentioned in a comment, Shakespeare received a paltry 3.5 pages; unacceptable for the greatest writer of all time. I hope it's simply due to lack of script in his own hand and not because the author felt it not important.