What is a book?

3^rd March 2010.

First Definition

"Until we take a book off the shelf and read it

It is just an object as described in the dictionary.

what brings a book alive is in the reading...

Whether it is educational or fiction..."

5^th March 2010.

The mass produced printed book has changed little in over 500 years. No one seems to be able to arrive at an agreed definition of a book. A book that constitutes 'bookness' has at least one of the following attributes, but certainly doesn't need all of them to be a book, pages, firm covers, it is bound, has sequence, narration, illustration, contents, durability, portability, purpose, meaning, use, acceptance...it seems however the more of this bookness a book has the more it is accepted as a book.

: Is an audio book a book?

Yes. It has narration, sequence, portability, purpose and meaning all attributed to bookness.

: A web book also has narration, sequence, illustration, purpose, pages and contents, so it too is a book.

We tend to small mindedly think of a book as printed and bound, disregarding other types of books as lacking in bookness. Maybe this is because of our fondness of nostalgia, a bound book is something we can hold and treasure whereas we see a web book as cold, impersonal and not individual.

"When we consider what bookness requires... emotional presence is not included, but certainly has an impact on how many people view books."

9^th March 2010.

Books are produced in many forms that are not strictly codex. Artist books may not have text or in fact few of the bookness attributes.
Books are a form of visual communication, paintings on cave walls can be regarded as the earliest form of visual communication, they have illustrations, meaning and purpose, but are not what we regard as a book, however as the book wasn't invented in any form at the time they were painted they can still be regarded as having bookness but are not books.

: A pile of rocks left by Australian Aborigine's thousands of years ago have no bookness, but their meaning is the same as the cave paintings visual communication. We have obviously always used visual communication in one form or another, from these very basic signs, the scroll, stone tablets, wax tablets, the codex, printed books, and web books.

: The need to tell a story always has and always will be part of the human story. In the visual communication sense an audio book is not a book but neither is music and it has probably always been used as a form of storytelling.

: Storytelling whether it is visual or audio is communication. Books regardless of their physical shape or if they have attributes of bookness are all a form of communication. Technology has given us new ways of communicating but the result is the same as the cave paintings, storytelling.

12 March 2010.

New Definition

"Physically the definition of a book is that in the codex form, regardless if it is an empty exercise book or a leather bound Tolstoy. How we personally feel about a book has nothing to do with its physical form.

The confusion seems to be between the physical book form and how its contents make us feel. The psychological or emotional meaning of a book.

A classic story like 'To Kill a Mockingbird'(Harper Lee 1960) can still have the same emotional effect on us, whether it is published as a paperback, audio book, web book or an artist's book."

18 March 2010

: A book doesn't require text to be a book, an empty journal or exercise book is a book... books in the physical sense. Adding writing or illustrations to empty books is giving the reader a chance to develop an emotional view.

"Tolstoy is still Tolstoy even if he had written his drafts with a bic pen on a 20c exercise book."

The Book: A brief history

: The first permanent and portable documents were clay tablets-3000bc, used for writing by the Sumerians, Babylonians, Assyrians and Hittites.

: The Scroll is considered the earliest true book form. Egyptian Papyrus scrolls, 3000bc. The Scroll was the dominant book form until 400ad; text in Scrolls was frequently arranged in columns, separated by blank spaces, a style that remained in later book forms.

: Papyrus was a difficult medium to work with, it was brittle and rough, parchment (sheep skin) replaced papyrus as early as 500bc, although heavier and time consuming to produce it was much more durable. Papyrus and parchment were both used, parchment becoming the dominant medium after the development of the codex book form.

: Another book form was the writing tablet. A block of wood, hollowed out to form a recess for wax. A sharp stylus was used for writing and drawing, used for scholars and business matters, the wax could be smoothed out and reused. Wax tablets were often laced together to form a volume.

: The Codex replaced these book forms in the Western world. The Codex is regular sized, has individual pages (parchment, velum, papyrus, paper) sandwiched within a protective cover and joined with stitchery along one side.

: There are several suggested origins of the codex. Scrolls folded rather than rolled, produce an accordion book that could be bound, the lacing of tablets form an earlier book form that could have been modified into a codex.

: All these book forms were used until around 400ad, when it is commonly believed the rise of Christianity and their preference for the parchment codex caused it to become the dominant book form.

: The codex book form has changed little in the last 500 years since the invention of the printing press. Technologies have provided different forms of binding, the staple for example and a multitude of different paper types.

: Personal computers along with the internet have probably contributed the single biggest change in how books are viewed and produced since Gutenberg invented the printing press.