Faux Real Genuine Leather and 200 Years of Inspired Fakes - Kanigel, Robert (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2010)
Biographical note: Robert Kanigel is Professor of Science Writing at MIT and author of several books, including The Man Who Knew Infinity: A Life of the Genius Ramanujan, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle and L.A. Times Book awards
Main description: From Leatherette to Naugahyde, men and women have devoted enormous energy to making fake leather seem real. Faux Real explores this borderland of the almost-real, the ersatz, and the fake, illuminating a centuries-old culture war between the authentic and the imitative