From The Guardian: The Spanish writer on how Papyrus, her bestselling history of literature in the ancient world, changed her life at a difficult moment, and why it’s a mistake to undervalue books.

Thanks to my colleague Jacob for introducing me to Irene Vallejo, a philologist whose work El infinito en un junco (the title in English is Papyrus: The Invention of Books in the Ancient World) introduces the concept of Alexander the Great being something of a forefather of the Internet. It’s an interesting thesis.