Each of the 100 books chosen has played a critical role in the development of books in all their forms and with all that they bring: literacy, numeracy, technological progress and the expansion of scientific knowledge, religion, political theory, entertainment, and more.

In the beginning. Cave paintings : El Castillo Cave ; Earliest evidence of mathematical knowledge : Ishango bone ; Cuneiform tablets : Epic of Gilgamesh ; An Andean mystery : Caral Khipu ; Egyptian books on papyrus : Book of the Dead of Ani -- Eastern approaches. Chinese developments in bookmaking : Guodian Chu slips ; Mass production in Japan : Shōtoku's Dharani ; Monumental Korean undertaking : Tripitaka Koreana ; Indian palm-leaf manuscript : Nalanda Perfection of Wisdom Sutra ; The biggest books ever written : Yongle Dadian ; Bone, bamboo and bark : Batak Pustaha ; Burmese folding format : Parabaik -- The great classics. Origins of a childrens' classic : Aesop's Fables ; A timeless epic : Homer's Iliad ; An early masterpiece of Ethiopian art : Garma Gospels ; The first cookbooks : Apicius ; A mathematical miracle : Archimedes palimpsest -- Medieval worlds & the book. Ireland's greatest treasure : Book of Kells ; Schism and discord : Chludov Psalter ; The foundation of pharmacology : Dioscorides' De Materia Medica ; A masterpiece of Armenian illumination : T'oros Roslin Gospels ; The father of mapping : Ptolemy's Geographia ; A sailor's guide to Byzantium : Cristoforo's Liber Insularum Archipelagi ; Illumination by the master of the prayer book : Bruges Roman de la Rose ; A giant among giants : Farnese Hours -- Light from the East. The oldest printed book of all : Dunhuang Diamond Sutra ; A literary and artistic masterpiece : Murasaki's the Tale of Genji ; The "Indian Aesop" : Panchatantra ; The standard Isalmic book of astronomy : Al-Sufi's Book of Fixed Stars ; A forgotten precursor of Leonardo da Vinci : Al-Jazari's Compendium on the mechanical arts ; The first anatomical "atlas" : Mansur's Anatomy ; An early Islamic book produced in Java : Boke van Bonang -- Wheels of change. Gutenberg's revolution : Gutenberg's 42-line bible ; A blockbuster among early printed books : Schedel's Nuremberg Chronicle ; A book from the first English printer : Caxton's Chesse Moralysed ; The first joke book : Wynkyn's Demaundes Joyous ; The earliest scientific texts : Euclid's Elementa Geometriae ; A model for future book design : Aldine Virgil ; Printing in Arabic : Gregorio's Book of Hours ; The first printing in Africa : Sefer Abudarham ; Heavenly voices : St. Gall Cantatorium ; A Gutenberg problem solved : Constance Gradual ; A major work of biblical scholarship : Complutensian Polyglot Bible. A dangerous invention. Developing the Swedish language : Gustav Vasa Bible ; Practical censorship at work : Erasmus' De ratione conscribendi epistolas ; The first printing in British America : Bay Psalm Book ; An Aztec view of pre-columbian life : Codex Mendoza ; Searching for pepper and nutmeg : Linschoten's Itinerario ; The first modern study of anatomy : Vesalius' De humani corporis fabrica ; An amazing amateur astronomer : Brahe's Astronomiae ; A foundation stone of modern science : Newton's Principia ; Everyman his own expert : Markham's Cavelarice ; Fashion in clothing : Helm's Art and Industry ; An outstanding British contribution to botany : Blackwell's Curious Herball ; A Baroque dance to the music of time : Tomlinson's Art of Dancing -- Printing & the Enlightenment. Rococo dress for classical drama : Boucher's Molière ; The greatest dictionary of the English language : Johnson's Dictionary ; A very early book for children : Newbery's Little Pretty Pocket-Book ; The lodestone for the Enlightenment : Diderot's Encyclopédie ; A pioneer information retrieval : Linnaeus' Species Plantarum ; Using graphs to convey information : Playfair's Commercial and Political Atlas ; Records of crime and punishment : Newgate Calendar ; The literary oddity that entranced Europe : Sterne's Tristram Shandy ; Mighty lewd or literary classic? : Cleland's Fanny Hill ; An African-American work in an ancient field : Banneker's Almanack ; The master of black and white : Bewick's British Birds ; Landscape design at its best : Repton's red books ; How tactile writing began : Haüy's Education of the Blind -- Print & steam. Patently brilliant Yankee inventiveness : Perkins' Patent ; The first book illustrated photographically : Atkins' Photographs of British Algae ; Photography moves to the third world : Duperly's Daguerian Excursions in Jamaica ; Missionary printing in Canada : Evans' Syllabic Hymnbook ; The development of serial publishing : Dickens' Pickwick Papers ; Pulp fiction, Victorian style : Powell's Ol Grizzly Adams ; Innovative books for young readers : Aikin's Robinson Crusoe in Words of One Syllable ; Moral education through pictures : Hoffman's Struwwelpeter ; From medieval mysticism to paper engineering : Meggendorfer's Grand Circus ; Have guidebook, will travel : Baedeker's Switzerland ; The first celebrity chef : Soyer's Modern Housewife ; Marketing for the colonies : Boldrewood's Robbery Under Arms -- The book in the turbulent 20th century. The blind seer of Buenos Aires : Borges' Garden of Forking Paths ; A major advance in document production : Carlson's lab book ; Printing as a performing art : Cranach-Presse's Hamlet ; A west-coast interpretation of American epic : Whitman's Leaves of Grass ; Tangoing toward the revolution : Kamensky's Tango with Cows ; Time-travel surrealism : Ernst's Une Semaine de Bonté ; Street literature-- the voice of the people : Nnadozie's Beware of Harlots ; Twentieth-century solutions to publishing needs : Lehmann's Invitation to the Waltz ; Never surrender! Clandestine presses in war : Kamiński's Sontes for the Rampart ; The greatest samizdat book : Bulgakov's Master and Margarita ; Guidance in the marital home : Sopes' Married Love ; The limits of political propaganda ; Frank's Diary of a Young Girl -- Digitization & the future of the book. All his own work : Hunter's Old Papermaking ; The last of the old, the first of the new : RAND's Million Random Digits ; Modernizing medieval manuscripts : Electronic Beowulf ; The first e-book : Ruiz's Mechanical Encyclopedia ; Multum in parvo-- the smallest books : Technion nano bible ; Modern technology and manga : Koyama-Richard's One Thousand Years of Manga ; Are "artists' books" books? : Prieto's Antibook ; Is it a book, or is it a book? : Sulawesi Lontar.