"Contending that book publishing, whether viewed as a business or as an art, needs to be examined on a supra-national level, Curwen combines research and insight to construct a clearer picture that shows "how the pieces of the worldwide book industry fit together." Rather than breaking it down country by country he takes it by its components. Two introductory chapters, "The Structure of the Book Industry," and "International Trade in Books," are followed by "Market Trends," "Book Distribution," "Libraries," "Reading and Owning Books, " "The Price of Books, " "Copyright, " "Book Printing," and "Electronic Publishing."Conclusions are backed by numerous tables and charts, and statistical appendixes give country-by-country figures. Although there is no bibliography, Curwen shows in his tables the sources of his statistics." (Eleanor Blum, Frances G. Wilhoit: Mass media bibliography. 3rd ed. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1990 Nr. 1031)