Introduction to Thoth Books

Source: Phil Coppens

Thoth is the ibis-headed god who introduced writing in ancient Egypt. With his blessing, we intend to bring to your attention new writing and old that we think merits your reading energy. Those works bearing the name and logo of Thoth Books will have been reviewed and selected especially by our team.

Thoth's innovation was to go beyond simple pictographs to create “hieroglyphics” that evoked spoken syllables and could be combined to form more complex or abstract words. Later scribes would further break down the syllables into the still simpler symbols of “alphabets,” to write on clay tablets, papyrus sheets, parchment scrolls, IBM Selectric typewriters, iPads, cell phones, and whatever comes next.

We hope that publications of Thoth Books will stimulate exchanges in your head with other things you've read or thought, as part of the unending conversation begun by our remotest ancestors and first annotated over 12,000 years ago by ibis-headed Thoth.