The qualities that signal bookness — size, shape, binding, pages and text — are so familiar that they are easy to take for granted. But these attributes are important in order to understand how books work across different contexts and cultures, both past and present.
A book is a device for the written communication of meaning in the form of an object made of a material such as clay, papyrus, parchment, natural or synthetic fibers, paper or microfilm. A book has a specific physical appearance that allows it to be easily transported and held in the hand; a page is an individual unit of text. A book is designed to be read, and it can be read by anyone with sufficient literacy. A book is also a container for various forms of information, including text, illustrations and music.
In the past, a book was often a collection of separate sheets (such as an Iliad or Odyssey scroll) glued or sewn together on one side and bound in covers. Later, the invention of printing allowed the spread of books in a form that is recognizable today as a single volume.
The book has become a dominant medium for communication in both private and public life. It has replaced the scroll, the codex and even the printed newspaper as the principal means of conveying ideas to large numbers of people at a time and over a broad range of subjects. Books can be found everywhere in the world and are a fundamental part of the culture of all societies.
It is difficult to say what exactly defines a book, but the definition generally excludes posters fixed on walls or inscribed monuments, which may be portable but are not designed for transport. It also includes a wide range of other forms that have been used for communication, such as scrolls and papyrus, carved stone temple columns and inscriptions on immovable objects.
Most books published today are printed using a form of offset lithography, which uses plates to print each page two at a time. Depending on the format, these pages are then folded and trimmed into signatures of two or more, and gathered into books. Most commercial publishers in industrialized countries use standard trim sizes, which are based on sheet sizes. These are known as folio, quarto or octavo.
When writing a book, it is important to focus on the substance and to make sure that the content is organized in an effective way. A good place to start is by doing some research. You can find a variety of resources at your local library and on the internet. The Library of Congress and Google Scholar are some good places to get started.
It is possible to have a successful career as an author of a book, but it takes a lot of hard work. Taking the time to do some research and writing a focused, substantive book will help you get noticed. Then, you can begin to build your audience and your career.