But... the end is the identification of a bit of paper from the WTC. Literally. That is the epilogue. I can understand the idea that something that looms as large as the attacks of Sept. 11 does in American minds needs to be the final subject introduced in this book because nothing else is really going to follow it... but. When a book covers as much disparate ground as this one, either the epilogue or, if there's not a proper epilogue, the final chapter needs to address the big picture and make some effort to tie the whole thing together, possibly looking towards the future of paper, what uses are likely to last the longest and which are more likely to vanish in a generation or so. The total lack of any conclusion, in any sense of the word, seems more appropriate for a book that people are meant to dip into than one people are meant to read straight through. I do have the impression that this is a book people are meant to read from beginning to end (for one thing the chapters are longer than I associate with books people are meant to pick up and turn to a section at random), but it doesn't end so much as stop.
Overall: B+