Books belong to those kinds of instruments that, once invented, have not been further improved because they are already alright, such as the hammer, the knife, spoon or scissors.
– Vegetal and mineral memory: The future of books, From a lecture Eco gave Nov. 1, 2003, in Alexandria, Egypt, upon the (re)opening of Bibliotecha Alexandrina. Published in the Nov 20-26 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly