The article presents a review of the monograph by Yu.N. Stolyarov “The Origins of Book Culture” (Chelyabinsk, ChGIK Publ., 2017, 500 p.), which opens a new direction in cultural studies and book science. The four main origins of book culture are investigated: myths of different peoples of the world about writing being divinely sent down, folklore, religion, and epos. The author formulates the initial scientific approaches that allow to answer the key questions concerning the subject of the study: the oral word preceded the appearance of writing; the word and writing are the result of human mental activity; writing is the greatest invention of mankind, bright and most significant factor of a “homo culturae”; the oral folk art is an inexhaustible source of data on the pre-writing period and first elements of written culture; the concept of “book” should be considered widely, as any carrier of information on something; myths of different peoples of the world, works of oral folk art, basic theological primary sources allow to find out the approximate time of origin of any given people’s writing; the East Slavs had had at least some elements of writing before the introduction of the Cyrillic alphabet.

The article highly appreciates the fundamental monograph by Yu.N. Stolyarov, which introduces a new direction in studying the history of the world book culture — the background to its emergence, reflected in mythology, folklore, religions, and epics. Bringing evidence of the existence of writing and literacy among the Slavs in the pre-Cyrillic era is a special merit of the author.