Book of Pages

by David Whiteland

Book of Pages is the result of several years’ work, on and off between commercial work. It’s a collection of observations on the modern world, made by following the journey of Jiriki, a simple monk from the mountains. The book is unusual, because (amongst other things) the main character never says anything and does very little; and even then, what little he does do is not very successful. But then, you’re not supposed to be looking at him .The main premise of Book of Pages is that technology’s primary effect on humans is that of making their lives more complicated. Is the loss of simplicity a reasonable price to pay for the benefits which technology provides?

Genres: Fiction

136 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2000

Reviews

[Letty Wilson · Rating 2 out of 5]

It still seems a very expensive gimmick to only print on one side of every page. Also suffers from "disposable girl character" which put me off pretty hard.

[Scribe · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book I really want to give 3.5 to - 3 seems too low, 4 seems a little high, so I'm going to round up in this case.

A lovely little edition though - the book is a look at the role of computers and technology in our modern world, through the eyes and journeys of a novice buddhist monk called Jiriki. Each page adopts a different facet of our manmade lives from the view of an outsider, pointing out dangers and questions that lurk on the edge of our everyday existence.

There's little in the way of "plot", but the illustrations are gorgeous, the text is great fun to read, and there are enough "hooks" through the book to make it interesting. This might be great for a younger person getting to grips with what they might otherwise take for granted, or indeed anyone else wondering what it's all about.