This is a book review about a book about a book reviewer who reviewed books. Essentially writing about writings about writings, some of those writings presumably are themselves writings about writings. And people wonder why the humanities have become irrelevant to the lives of people today.
You went to great lengths to make this seem more convoluted than it is. An article about a book detailing a man responsible for shaping how we read is pretty straightforward
As someone who is deeply interested in writing, I drew an opposite conclusion after reading the article - these days, when I encounter an old book I like, I like that I can expect to find a lot of information about its publication history.