spine printing direction?

Can someone explain why the printing on the spine is so that the
writing is read from the left side. That is, in a stack of books on a
shelf, you have to approach from the left side to read the spine text
that is written along the height of the book. I think it should be
readable from the right since English is read from left to right.
History on this etc? Comments please.
ron

On Wed, 30 May 2007 18:23:19 -0700, motor man wrote:

> Can someone explain why the printing on the spine is so that the writing
> is read from the left side. That is, in a stack of books on a shelf, you
> have to approach from the left side to read the spine text that is
> written along the height of the book. I think it should be readable from
> the right since English is read from left to right. History on this etc?
> Comments please. ron


Don't know the history but the European approach is oposite to the US one.

--
John Culleton