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- ...codices did not immediately replace rolls as the usual format for books. Many readers apparently liked their bookrolls (which weighed much less than codices) and had little interest in preserving literature for distant future generations. A bookroll was also easier to make: you could buy pre-made four-metre rolls and just copy into them whatever book you wanted. By contrast, to make a codex you normally had to copy onto unbound pages (in a peculiar order, owing to the structure of book quires) and then have them bound by a professional. For several centuries after the invention of the codex, therefore, both formats were in common use. The eventual obsolescence of the roll may not have had anything to do with the inherent advantages or disadvantages of the different book formats.