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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

(Redirected from Books)
For other uses, see Book (disambiguation).

The Gutenberg Bible, one of the first

books to be printed using the printing press

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A book is a medium for recording information in the form of writing or

images. Books are typically composed of many pages, bound together and
protected by a cover.[1] Modern bound books were preceded by many other
written mediums, such as the codex, the scroll and the tablet. The
book publishing process is the series of steps involved in their creation and
dissemination.

As a conceptual object, a book typically refers to a written work of

substantial length, which may be distributed either physically or in digital
forms like ebooks. These works are broadly classified
into fiction (containing imaginary content) and non-fiction (containing
content representing truths). Many smaller categories exist within these,
such as children's literature meant to match the reading level and interests
of children, or reference works that gather collections of non-fiction. Books
are traded at both regular stores and specialized bookstores, and can be
borrowed from libraries. The reception of books has led to a number of
social consequences, including censorship.

A physical book may not contain a written work: for example, it may contain
only drawings, engravings, photographs, puzzles, or removable content
like paper dolls. Physical books may be left empty to be used for writing or
drawing, as in the case of account books, appointment books, autograph
books, notebooks, diaries and sketchbooks.

The contemporary book industry has seen several major changes due to
new technologies. In some markets, the sale of printed books has
decreased due to the increased use of ebooks.[2] However, printed books
still largely outsell ebooks, and many people have a preference for print.[3][4]
[5][6]
The 21st century has also seen a rapid rise in the popularity
of audiobooks, which are recordings of books being read aloud.
[7]
Additionally, awareness of the needs of people who have difficulty
accessing print media due to disabilities like visual impairment has led to a
rise in formats designed for greater accessibility, such as braille printing or
formats supporting text-to-voice. Google Books estimated that as of 2010,
approximately 130,000,000 unique books had been published.[8]

Etymology
The word book comes from Old English bōc, which in turn comes from
the Germanic root *bōk-, cognate to 'beech'.[9] In Slavic
languages like Russian, Bulgarian, Macedonian буква bukva—'letter' is
cognate with 'beech'. In Russian, Serbian and Macedonian, the
word букварь (bukvar') or буквар (bukvar) refers to a primary school
textbook that helps young children master the techniques
of reading and writing. It is thus conjectured that the earliest Indo-
European writings may have been carved on beech wood.[10] The Latin
word codex, meaning a book in the modern sense (bound and with
separate leaves), originally meant 'block of wood'.[11]

An avid reader or collector of books is a bibliophile, or colloquially a

"bookworm".[12]

Definitions
In its modern incarnation, a physical book is typically a collection of pages
(most commonly of paper, parchment, or vellum) that are bound together
and protected by a cover. By extension, 'book' may refer to a physical
book's written, printed, or graphic contents.[1]

A single part or division of a longer written work may also be called a book,
especially for some works composed in antiquity: each part
of Aristotle's Physics, for example, is a book.[13]

It is difficult to create an exact definition of books that clearly delineates

them from other kinds of written material across time and culture. Many
physical mediums for communication have existed throughout history, and
the question of whether a particular object is a book may be subjective and
contentious (as in the case of ebooks). Historian of books James
Raven has suggested that when studying how books have been used to
communicate, they should be defined in a broadly inclusive way as
"portable, durable, replicable and legible" means of recording and
disseminating information, rather than by physical or contextual features.
This would include, for example, ebooks, newspapers, and quipus (a form
of knot-based recording historically used by cultures in Andean South
America), but not objects fixed in place such as inscribed monuments.[14][15]

Stricter definitions appear in other specialized contexts. For the purpose of

recording national statistics on book production, UNESCO recommended
that a book be defined as "a non-periodical printed publication of at least 49
pages, exclusive of the cover pages, published in the country and made
available to the public", distinguishing them from other written material such
as pamphlets.[1][16]

Although in academic language a monograph is understood to be a

specialist work on a single subject, in library and information science the
term is sometimes used more broadly to mean any non-serial publication
complete in one volume (a physical book) or a definite number of volumes
(such as a multi-volume novel), in contrast to serial or periodical
publications.[1][13]

History of books
Main article: History of books

12-metre-high (40 ft) stack of books sculpture at

the Berlin Walk of Ideas, commemorating the invention of modern book
printing
The history of books became an acknowledged academic discipline in the
1980s. Contributions to the field have come from textual
scholarship, codicology, bibliography, philology, palaeography, art
history, social history and cultural history. Its key purpose is to demonstrate
that the book as an object, not just the text contained within it, is a conduit
of interaction between readers and words. Analysis of each component part
of the book reveals its purpose, where and how it was kept, who read it,
ideological and religious beliefs of the period, and whether readers
interacted with the text within. Even a lack of evidence of this nature leaves
valuable clues about the nature of that particular book.

The earliest forms of writing were etched on stone slabs, transitioning to

palm leaves and papyrus in ancient times.[17] Parchment and paper later
emerged as important substrates for bookmaking, introducing greater
durability and accessibility.[18] Across regions like China, the Middle
East, Europe, and South Asia, diverse methods of book production
evolved. The Middle Ages saw the rise of illuminated manuscripts,
intricately blending text and imagery, particularly during the Mughal era in
South Asia under the patronage of rulers like Akbar and Shah Jahan.[19]
[20]
Prior to the invention of the printing press, made famous by
the Gutenberg Bible, each text was a unique handcrafted valuable article,
personalized through the design features incorporated by the scribe,
owner, bookbinder, and illustrator.[21]

The invention of the printing press in the 15th century marked a pivotal
moment, revolutionizing book production.[22] Innovations like movable type
and steam-powered presses accelerated manufacturing processes and
contributed to increased literacy rates. Copyright protection also emerged,
securing authors' rights and shaping the publishing landscape.[23] The Late
Modern Period introduced chapbooks, catering to a wider range of readers,
and mechanization of the printing process further enhanced efficiency.

The 20th century witnessed the advent of typewriters, computers, and

desktop publishing, transforming document creation and printing. Digital
advancements in the 21st century led to the rise of e-books, propelled by
the popularity of e-readers and accessibility features. While discussions
about the potential decline of physical books have surfaced, print media
has proven remarkably resilient, continuing to thrive as a multi-billion dollar
industry.[24] Additionally, efforts to make literature more inclusive emerged,
with the development of Braille for the visually impaired and the creation of
spoken books, providing alternative ways for individuals to access and
enjoy literature.[25][26]
Notable advances
Fragments of the Instructions of Shuruppak: "Shurrupak gave
instructions to his son: Do not buy an ass which brays too much. Do not
commit rape upon a man's daughter, do not announce it to the courtyard.
Do not answer back against your father, do not raise a 'heavy eye.'".
From Adab, c. 2600–2500 BCE[27]
Tablet
Main articles: Clay tablet and Wax tablet
Some of the earliest written records were made on tablets. Clay tablets
(flattened pieces of clay impressed with a stylus) were used in the Ancient
Near East throughout the Bronze Age and well into the Iron Age, especially
for writing in cuneiform. Wax tablets (pieces of wood covered in a layer of
wax) were used in classical antiquity and throughout the Middle Ages.

The custom of binding several wax tablets together (Roman pugillares) is a

possible precursor of modern bound books.[28] The etymology of the
word codex (block of wood) suggests that it may have developed from
wooden wax tablets.[29]
Scroll
Main article: Scroll

Book of the Dead of Hunefer; c. 1275 BC;

ink and pigments on papyrus; 45 × 90.5 cm; British Museum (London)
Scrolls made from papyrus were first used for writing in Ancient Egypt,
perhaps as early as the First Dynasty, although the earliest evidence is
from the account books of King Neferirkare Kakai of the Fifth Dynasty
(about 2400 BC). According to Herodotus (History 5:58),
the Phoenicians brought writing and papyrus to Greece around the 10th or
9th century BC. Whether made from papyrus, parchment, or paper, scrolls
were the dominant writing medium in the Hellenistic, Roman,
Chinese, Hebrew, and Macedonian cultures. The codex dominated in the
Roman world by late antiquity, but scrolls persisted much longer in Asia.
[citation needed]

Codex
Main article: Codex

A Chinese bamboo book meets the modern definition

of codex.
The codex is the ancestor of the modern book, consisting of sheets of
uniform size bound along one edge and typically held between two covers
made of some more robust material. Isidore of Seville (died 636) explained
the then-current relation between a codex, book, and scroll in
his Etymologiae (VI.13): "A codex is composed of many books; a book is of
one scroll. It is called codex by way of metaphor from the trunks (codex) of
trees or vines, as if it were a wooden stock, because it contains in itself a
multitude of books, as it were of branches".

The first written mention of the codex as a form of book is from Martial, in
his Apophoreta CLXXXIV at the end of the first century, where he praises its
compactness. However, the codex never gained much popularity in the
pagan Hellenistic world, and only within the Christian community did it gain
widespread use.[30] This change happened gradually during the 3rd and 4th
centuries, and the reasons for adopting the codex form of the book were
several: the format was more economical than the scroll, as both sides of
the writing material can be used; and it was portable, searchable, and
easier to conceal. The Christian authors may also have wanted to
distinguish their writings from the pagan and Judaic texts written on scrolls.

The codices of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica had the same form as the

European codex, but were instead made with long folded strips of either fig
bark (amatl) or plant fibers, often with a layer of whitewash applied before
writing. New World codices were written as late as the 16th century
(see Maya codices and Aztec codices). Those written before the Spanish
conquests seem all to have been single long sheets folded concertina-
style, sometimes written on both sides of the local amatl paper.
Manuscript
Main article: Manuscript
See also: Palm-leaf manuscript

Folio 14 recto of the 5th-century Vergilius

Romanus contains an author portrait of Virgil. Note the bookcase (capsa),
reading stand and the text written without word spacing in rustic capitals.
Manuscripts, handwritten and hand-copied documents, were the only form
of writing before the invention and widespread adoption of print. Advances
were made in the techniques used to create them.

In the early Western Roman Empire, monasteries continued Latin writing

traditions related to Christianity, and the clergy were the predominant
readers and copyists. The bookmaking process was long and laborious.
They were usually written on parchment or vellum, writing surfaces made
from processed animal skin. The parchment had to be prepared, then the
unbound pages were planned and ruled with a blunt tool or lead, after
which the text was written by a scribe, who usually left blank areas for
illustration and rubrication. Finally, it was bound by a bookbinder.[31]

Because of the difficulties involved in making and copying books, they were
expensive and rare. Smaller monasteries usually had only a few dozen
books. By the 9th century, larger collections held around 500 volumes and
even at the end of the Middle Ages, the papal library in Avignon and Paris
library of the Sorbonne held only around 2,000 volumes.[32]

The rise of universities in the 13th century led to an increased demand for
books, and a new system for copying appeared. The books were divided
into unbound leaves (pecia), which were lent out to different copyists, so
the speed of book production was considerably increased. The system was
maintained by secular stationers guilds, which produced both religious and
non-religious material.[33]

The Codex Amiatinus anachronistically depicts the

Biblical Ezra with the kind of books used in the 8th century AD.

Burgundian author and scribe Jean Miélot, from

his Miracles de Notre Dame, 15th century
In India bound manuscripts made of birch bark or palm leaf had existed
since antiquity.[34] The text in palm leaf manuscripts was inscribed with a
knife pen on rectangular cut and cured palm leaf sheets; coloring was then
applied to the surface and wiped off, leaving the ink in the incised grooves.
Each sheet typically had a hole through which a string could pass, and with
these the sheets were tied together with a string to bind like a book.
Woodblock printing
Bagh print, a traditional woodblock printing technique that originated
in Bagh, Madhya Pradesh, India
Main article: Woodblock printing
In woodblock printing, a relief image of an entire page is carved into blocks
of wood, inked, and used to print copies of that page. It originated in
the Han dynasty before 220 AD, used to print textiles and later paper, and
was widely used throughout East Asia. The oldest dated book printed by
this method is The Diamond Sutra (868 AD). The method
(called woodcut when used in art) arrived in Europe in the early 14th
century. Books (known as block-books), as well as playing-
cards and religious pictures, began to be produced by this method.
Creating an entire book was a painstaking process, requiring a hand-
carved block for each page, and the wooden blocks could crack if stored for
too long.
Movable type and incunabula
Main articles: Movable type and Incunable

Selected Teachings of Buddhist Sages and Son

Masters, the earliest known book printed with movable metal type, printed
in Korea, in 1377, Bibliothèque nationale de France
The Chinese inventor Bi Sheng made movable type of earthenware c.
1045, but there are no known surviving examples of his printing. Around
1450, Johannes Gutenberg independently invented movable type in
Europe, along with innovations in casting the type based on a matrix
and hand mould. This invention gradually made books less expensive to
produce and more widely available. Early printed books, single sheets and
images which were created before 1501 in Europe are known
as incunables or incunabula.[35]
 A 15th-century Incunable
19th century to 21st century
Steam-powered printing presses became popular in the early 19th century.
These machines could print 1,100 sheets per hour,[36] but workers could
only set 2,000 letters per hour.[citation needed] monotype and linotype typesetting
machines were introduced in the late 19th century. They could set more
than 6,000 letters per hour and an entire line of type at once. There have
been numerous improvements in the printing press. In mid-20th century,
European book production had risen to over 200,000 titles per year.

Throughout the 20th century, libraries have faced an ever-increasing rate of

publishing, sometimes called an information explosion. The advent
of electronic publishing and the internet means that much new information
is published online rather than in printed books, for example through
a digital library. Though many books are produced digitally, most digital
versions are not available to the public, and there is no decline in the rate
of paper publishing.[37] There have also been new developments in the
process of publishing books. Technologies such as POD or "print on
demand", which make it possible to print as few as one book at a time,
have made self-publishing (and vanity publishing) much easier and more
affordable. On-demand publishing has allowed publishers, by avoiding the
high costs of warehousing, to keep low-selling books in print rather than
declaring them out of print.

Contemporary publishing
Main article: Publishing
Presently, books are often produced by a publishing company for the sake
of being put on the market by distributors and bookstores. The company
negotiates with authors in order to reach a formal legal agreement to obtain
the copyright to works, then arranges for them to be produced and sold.
The major steps of the publishing process are: editing and proofreading the
work to be published; designing the printed book; manufacturing the books;
and selling the book, including marketing and promotion. Each of these
steps is usually taken on by third-party companies paid by the publisher.
[1]
This is in contrast to self-publishing, where an author arranges to publish
their work without the involvement of a publishing company.[38]

English-language publishing is currently dominated by the so-called "Big

Five" publishers: Penguin Random House, Hachette Book
Group, HarperCollins, Simon and Schuster, and Macmillan Publishers.
They were estimated to make up almost 60 percent of the market for
general-readership books in 2021.[39]
Design
Main article: Book design
Book design is the art of incorporating the content, style, format, design,
and sequence of the various components and elements of a book into a
coherent unit.[40] In the words of renowned typographer Jan
Tschichold (1902–1974), book design, "though largely forgotten today,
[relies upon] methods and rules upon which it is impossible to improve,
[and which] have been developed over centuries. To produce perfect
books, these rules have to be brought back to life and applied".[41] Richard
Hendel describes book design as "an arcane subject", and refers to the
need for a context to understand what that means.[42]
Layout
See also: Page layout
 Scheme of common book design

1. Belly band
2. Flap
3. Endpaper
4. Cover
5. Head
6. Fore edge
7. Tail
8. Right page (recto if printing is left to right, verso if right to left)
9. Left page (verso if printing is left to right, recto if right to left)
10. Gutter
Modern books are organized according to a particular format called the
book's layout. Although there is great variation in layout, modern books
tend to adhere to a set of rules with regard to what the parts of the layout
are and what their content usually includes. A basic layout will include
a front cover, a back cover and the book's content which is called its body
copy or content pages. The front cover often bears the book's title (and
subtitle, if any) and the name of its author or editor(s). The inside front
cover page is usually left blank in both hardcover and paperback books.
The next section, if present, is the book's front matter, which includes all
textual material after the front cover but not part of the book's content such
as a foreword, a dedication, a table of contents and publisher data such as
the book's edition or printing number and place of publication. Between the
body copy and the back cover goes the end matter which would include
any indices, sets of tables, diagrams, glossaries or lists of cited works
(though an edited book with several authors usually places cited works at
the end of each authored chapter). The inside back cover page, like that
inside the front cover, is usually blank. The back cover is the usual place
for the book's ISBN and maybe a photograph of the author(s)/ editor(s),
perhaps with a short introduction to them. Also here often appear plot
summaries, barcodes and excerpted reviews of the book.[43]

The body of the books is usually divided into parts, chapters, sections and
sometimes subsections that are composed of at least a paragraph or more.
Illustration
Main article: Book illustration

Illustration from "The House that Jack Built"

in The Complete Collection of Pictures & Songs; engraving and printing
by Edmund Evans, illustration by Randolph Caldecott (1887)
 One of 12 illustrations in the 4th edition
of Paradise Lost by John Milton, by John Baptist Medina, 1688
The illustration of handwritten manuscript books was well established in
ancient times, and the tradition of the illuminated manuscript thrived in the
West until the invention of printing.[44][45] Other parts of the world had
comparable traditions, such as the Persian miniature.[46] Woodblock
printing emerged in China, spread to Japan by the 9th century,[47] and
spread across Europe in the 13th century.[48] Modern book
illustration comes from the 15th-century woodcut illustrations that were
fairly rapidly included in early printed books, and later block books.[47] Other
techniques such as engraving, etching, and lithography expanded the
possibilities and were notably used by the French artists Daumier, Doré,
and Gavarni.[47]
Manufacturing
Main article: Bookbinding
The spine of the book is an important aspect in book design, especially in
the cover design. When books are stacked up or stored on a shelf, the
spine is often the only visible surface that contains information about the
book. In stores, it is the details on the spine that attract a prospective

buyer's attention first. A small bookshelf

The methods used for the printing and binding of books continued
fundamentally unchanged from the 15th century into the early 20th century.
While there was more mechanization, a book printer in 1900 still used
movable metal type assembled into words, lines, and pages to create
copies. Modern paper books are printed on paper designed specifically for
printing. Traditionally, book papers are off-white or low-white papers (easier
to read), are opaque to minimize the show-through of text from one side of
the page to the other and are (usually) made to tighter caliper or thickness
specifications, particularly for case-bound books. Different paper qualities
are used depending on the type of book: Machine finished coated
papers, woodfree uncoated papers, coated fine papers and special fine
papers are common paper grades.

Today, the majority of books are printed by offset lithography.[49] When a

book is printed, the pages are laid out on the plate so that after the printed
sheet is folded the pages will be in the correct sequence. Books tend to be
manufactured nowadays in a few standard sizes. The sizes of books are
usually specified as "trim size": the size of the page after the sheet has
been folded and trimmed. The standard sizes result from sheet sizes
(therefore machine sizes) which became popular 200 or 300 years ago,
and have come to dominate the industry. British conventions in this regard
prevail throughout the English-speaking world, except for the US. The
European book manufacturing industry works to a completely different set
of standards.
Printing
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Some books, particularly those with shorter runs (i.e. with fewer copies) will
be printed on sheet-fed offset presses, but most books are now printed
on web presses, which are fed by a continuous roll of paper, and can
consequently print more copies in a shorter time. As the production line
circulates, a complete "book" is collected together in one stack of pages,
and another machine carries out the folding, pleating, and stitching of the
pages into bundles of signatures (sections of pages) ready to go into the
gathering line. The pages of a book are printed two at a time, not as one
complete book. Excess numbers are printed to make up for any spoilage
due to make-readies or test pages to assure final print quality.

A make-ready is the preparatory work carried out by the pressmen to get

the printing press up to the required quality of impression. Included in
make-ready is the time taken to mount the plate onto the machine, clean up
any mess from the previous job, and get the press up to speed. As soon as
the pressman decides that the printing is correct, all the make-ready sheets
will be discarded, and the press will start making books. Similar make
readies take place in the folding and binding areas, each involving spoilage
of paper.
Digital printing

Recent developments in book manufacturing include the development of

digital printing. Book pages are printed, in much the same way as an office
copier works, using toner rather than ink. Each book is printed in one pass,
not as separate signatures. Digital printing has permitted the manufacture
of much smaller quantities than offset, in part because of the absence of
make readies and of spoilage. Digital printing has opened up the possibility
of print-on-demand, where no books are printed until after an order is
received from a customer.
Binding
After the signatures are folded and gathered, they move into the bindery. In
the middle of last century there were still many trade binders—stand-alone
binding companies which did no printing, specializing in binding alone. At
that time, because of the dominance of letterpress printing, typesetting and
printing took place in one location, and binding in a different factory. When
type was all metal, a typical book's worth of type would be bulky, fragile and
heavy. The less it was moved in this condition the better: so printing would
be carried out in the same location as the typesetting. Printed sheets on the
other hand could easily be moved. Now, because of
increasing computerization of preparing a book for the printer, the
typesetting part of the job has flowed upstream, where it is done either by
separately contracting companies working for the publisher, by the
publishers themselves, or even by the authors. Mergers in the book
manufacturing industry mean that it is now unusual to find a bindery which
is not also involved in book printing (and vice versa).

If the book is a hardback its path through the bindery will involve more
points of activity than if it is a paperback. Unsewn binding is now
increasingly common. The signatures of a book can also be held together
by "Smyth sewing" using needles, "McCain sewing", using drilled holes
often used in schoolbook binding, or "notch binding", where gashes about
an inch long are made at intervals through the fold in the spine of each
signature. The rest of the binding process is similar in all instances. Sewn
and notch bound books can be bound as either hardbacks or paperbacks.
Finishing
"Making cases" happens off-line and prior to the book's arrival at the
binding line. In the most basic case-making, two pieces of cardboard are
placed onto a glued piece of cloth with a space between them into which is
glued a thinner board cut to the width of the spine of the book. The
overlapping edges of the cloth (about 5/8" all round) are folded over the
boards, and pressed down to adhere. After case-making the stack of cases
will go to the foil stamping area for adding decorations and type.

Formats

Hardcover books Pap

erback books
For most of the history of book making, books have been shared as
physical books. However, with changes of technologies and growing
awareness of the needs of people who have reading disabilities, other
formats such as audiobooks and digital books have gained traction in the
book market place.
Physical books
Hardcover books have a stiff binding. Paperback books have cheaper,
flexible covers which tend to be less durable. An alternative to paperback is
the glossy cover, otherwise known as a dust cover, found on magazines,
and comic books. Spiral-bound books are bound by spirals made of metal
or plastic. Examples of spiral-bound books include teachers' manuals
and puzzle books (crosswords, sudoku).

Publishers may produce low-cost, pre-publication copies known

as galleys or 'bound proofs' for promotional purposes, such as generating
reviews in advance of publication. Galleys are usually made as cheaply as
possible, since they are not intended for sale.
Size
This paragraph is an excerpt from Book size.[edit]
The size of a book is generally measured by the height against the width of
a leaf, or sometimes the height and width of its cover.[50] A series of terms is
commonly used by libraries and publishers for the general sizes of modern
books, ranging from folio (the largest), to quarto (smaller) and octavo (still
smaller). Historically, these terms referred to the format of the book, a
technical term used by printers and bibliographers to indicate the size of a
leaf in terms of the size of the original sheet. For example, a quarto (from
Latin quartō, ablative form of quartus, fourth[51]) historically was a book
printed on sheets of paper folded in half twice, with the first fold at right
angles to the second, to produce 4 leaves (or 8 pages), each leaf one
fourth the size of the original sheet printed – note that a leaf refers to the
single piece of paper, whereas a page is one side of a leaf. Because the
actual format of many modern books cannot be determined from
examination of the books, bibliographers may not use these terms in
scholarly descriptions.
Dummy books
 Cigarette smuggling with a book
Dummy books (or faux books) are books that are designed to imitate a real
book by appearance to deceive people, some books may be whole with
empty pages, others may be hollow or in other cases, there may be a
whole panel carved with spines which are then painted to look like books,
titles of some books may also be fictitious.

There are many reasons to have dummy books on display such as; to
allude visitors of the vast wealth of information in their possession and to
inflate the owner's appearance of wealth, to conceal something,[52] for shop
displays or for decorative purposes.

In early 19th century at Gwrych Castle, North Wales, Lloyd Hesketh

Bamford-Hesketh was known for his vast collection of books at his library,
however, at the later part of that same century, the public became aware
that parts of his library was a fabrication, dummy books were built and then
locked behind glass doors to stop people from trying to access them, from
this a proverb was born, "Like Hesky's library, all outside".[53][54]
Ebook

A Kindle e-reader
This paragraph is an excerpt from Ebook.[edit]
An ebook (short for electronic book), also spelled as e-book or eBook, is a
book publication made available in electronic form, consisting of text,
images, or both, readable on the flat-panel display of computers or other
electronic devices.[55] Although sometimes defined as "an electronic version
of a printed book",[56] some e-books exist without a printed equivalent. E-
books can be read on dedicated e-reader devices, also on any computer
device that features a controllable viewing screen, including desktop
computers, laptops, tablets and smartphones.
Audiobook
This section is an excerpt from Audiobook.[edit]
An audiobook (or a talking book) is a recording of a book or other work
being read out loud. A reading of the complete text is described as
"unabridged", while readings of shorter versions are abridgements.

Spoken audio has been available in schools and public libraries and to a
lesser extent in music shops since the 1930s. Many spoken word
albums were made prior to the age of cassettes, compact discs,
and downloadable audio, often of poetry and plays rather than books. It
was not until the 1980s that the medium began to attract book retailers, and
then book retailers started displaying audiobooks on bookshelves rather
than in separate displays.
Accessibility formats
This section is an excerpt from Accessible publishing.[edit]
An example of someone using a screen reader showing documents that
are inaccessible, readable and accessible
Accessible publishing is an approach to publishing and book
design whereby books and other texts are made available in alternative
formats designed to aid or replace the reading process. It is particularly
relevant for people who are blind, visually impaired or otherwise print-
disabled.

Alternative formats that have been developed to aid different people to read
include varieties of larger fonts, specialised fonts for certain kinds
of reading disabilities, braille, e-books, and
automated audiobooks and DAISY digital talking books.

Accessible publishing has been made easier through developments in

technology such as print on demand (POD), e-book readers,
the XML structured data format, the EPUB3 format and the Internet.
Content
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Novels in a bookstore
Libraries, bookstores, and collections commonly divide books
into fiction and non-fiction, though other types exist beyond this. Other
books, which remain unpublished or are primarily published as part of
different business functions (such as phone directories) may not be sold by
bookstores or collected by libraries. Manuscripts, logbooks and other
records may be classified and stored differently by special
collections or archives.
Fiction
Many of the books published today are "fiction", meaning that they contain
invented material, and are creative literature. Other literary forms such
as poetry are included in the broad category. Most fiction is additionally
categorized by literary form and genre.

The novel is the most common form of fiction book. Novels are stories that
typically feature a plot, setting, themes and characters. Stories and
narrative are not restricted to any topic; a novel can be whimsical, serious
or controversial. The novel has had a tremendous impact on entertainment
and publishing markets.[57] A novella is a term sometimes used for
fiction prose typically between 17,500 and 40,000 words, and
a novelette between 7,500 and 17,500. A short story may be any length up
to 10,000 words, but these word lengths vary.
Comic books or graphic novels are books in which the story is illustrated.
The characters and narrators use speech or thought bubbles to express
verbal language.
Non-fiction

A page from a dictionary

Non-fiction books are in principle based on fact, on subjects such as
history, politics, social and cultural issues, as well
as autobiographies and memoirs. Nearly all academic literature is non-
fiction. A reference book is a general type of non-fiction book which
provides information as opposed to telling a story, essay, commentary, or
otherwise supporting a point of view.
References
Main article: Reference work
An almanac is a very general reference book, usually one-volume, with lists
of data and information on many topics. An encyclopedia is a book or set of
books designed to have more in-depth articles on many topics. A book
listing words, their etymology, meanings, and other information is called
a dictionary. A book which is a collection of maps is an atlas. A more
specific reference book with tables or lists of data and information about a
certain topic, often intended for professional use, is often called
a handbook. Books which try to list references and abstracts in a certain
broad area may be called an index, such as Engineering Index,
or abstracts such as chemical abstracts and biological abstracts.
Technical
 An atlas
Books with technical information on how to do something or how to use
some equipment are called instruction manuals. Other popular how-to
books include cookbooks and home improvement books.
Educational
Main article: Textbook
Students typically store and carry textbooks and schoolbooks for study
purposes. Lap books are a learning tool created by students. Elementary
school pupils often use workbooks, which are published with spaces or
blanks to be filled by them for study or homework. In US higher education,
it is common for a student to take an exam using a blue book.
Religious
Hymnals are books with collections of musical hymns that can typically be
found in churches. Prayerbooks or missals are books that contain
written prayers and are commonly carried by monks, nuns, and other
devoted followers or clergy.
Children's books
This section is an excerpt from Children's literature.[edit]
 A mother reads to her children in a mid- to late
19th century lithograph by Jessie Willcox Smith.
Children's literature or juvenile literature includes stories, books,
magazines, and poems that are created for children. Modern children's
literature is classified in two different ways: genre or the intended age of the
reader, from picture books for the very young to young adult fiction.

Children's literature can be traced to traditional stories like fairy tales, that
have only been identified as children's literature in the eighteenth century,
and songs, part of a wider oral tradition, that adults shared with children
before publishing existed. The development of early children's literature,
before printing was invented, is difficult to trace. Even after printing became
widespread, many classic "children's" tales were originally created for
adults and later adapted for a younger audience. Since the fifteenth century
much literature has been aimed specifically at children, often with a moral
or religious message. Children's literature has been shaped by religious
sources, like Puritan traditions, or by more philosophical and scientific
standpoints with the influences of Charles Darwin and John Locke.[58] The
late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries are known as the "Golden Age
of Children's Literature" because many classic children's books were
published then.
Unpublished
 A page from a notebook used as hand written diary
There is a large set of books that are made only to write private ideas,
notes, and accounts. These books are rarely published and are typically
destroyed or remain private. Notebooks are blank papers to be written in by
the user. Students and writers commonly use them for taking
notes. Scientists and other researchers use lab notebooks to record their
notes. They often feature spiral coil bindings at the edge so that pages may
easily be torn out.
Directories and record keeping

A telephone directory, with business and

residence listings
Address books, phone books, and calendar/appointment books are
commonly used on a daily basis for recording appointments, meetings and
personal contact information.

Books for recording periodic entries by the user, such as daily information
about a journey, are called logbooks or logs. A similar book for writing the
owner's daily private personal events, information, and ideas is called
a diary or personal journal. Businesses use accounting books such as
journals and ledgers to record financial data in a practice
called bookkeeping (now usually held on computers rather than in hand-
written form).

Collection and classification

Since the beginning of creation of books, there has been need to create
strategies for organizing, collecting and creating access to the books.
Personal and public libraries, archives and other forms of collecting has led
to different strategies for organizing, and subsequently making access to
the books easier for different use cases.

In the 19th and 20th century, libraries and library professionals

systematized book collecting and classification systems to respond to the
growing literacy and print industries around the world. The most widely
used system is ISBN, which has provided unique identifiers for books since
1970.
Libraries
Main article: Library

The Library of Celsus in Ephesus, Turkey, was

built in 135 AD, and could house around 12,000 scrolls.
Private or personal libraries made up of non-fiction and fiction books, as
opposed to state or institutional archives, first appeared in classical
Greece. In the ancient world, the maintaining of a library was usually (but
not exclusively) the privilege of a wealthy individual. These libraries could
have been either private or public, i.e. for people who were interested in
using them. The difference from a modern public library lies in that they
were usually not funded from public sources. It is estimated that in the city
of Rome at the end of the 3rd century there were around 30 public libraries.
Public libraries also existed in other cities of the ancient Mediterranean
region (for example, Library of Alexandria).[59] Later, in the Middle Ages,
monasteries and universities also had libraries that could be accessible to
the general public. Typically not the whole collection was available to the
public; the books could not be borrowed and often were chained to reading
stands to prevent theft.

The beginning of the modern public library begins around 15th century
when individuals started to donate books to towns.[60] The growth of a public
library system in the United States started in the late 19th century and was
much helped by donations from Andrew Carnegie. This reflected classes in
a society: the poor or the middle class had to access most books through a
public library or by other means, while the rich could afford to have
a private library built in their homes. In the United States the Boston Public
Library 1852 Report of the Trustees established the justification for the
public library as a tax-supported institution intended to extend educational
opportunity and provide for general culture.[61]

The advent of paperback books in the 20th century led to an explosion of

popular publishing. Paperback books made owning books affordable for
many people. Paperback books often included works from genres that had
previously been published mostly in pulp magazines. As a result of the low
cost of such books and the spread of bookstores filled with them (in
addition to the creation of a smaller market of extremely cheap used
paperbacks), owning a private library ceased to be a status symbol for the
rich.

The development of libraries has prompted innovations to help store and

organize books on shelves. In library and booksellers' catalogues, it is
common to include an abbreviation such as "Crown 8vo" to indicate
the paper size from which the book is made. When rows of books are lined
on a book holder, bookends are sometimes needed to keep them from
slanting.
Identification and classification

ISBN with barcode

During the 20th century, librarians were concerned about keeping track of
the many books being added yearly to the Gutenberg Galaxy. Through a
global society called the International Federation of Library Associations
and Institutions (IFLA), they devised a series of tools including
the International Standard Bibliographic Description (ISBD). Each book is
specified by an International Standard Book Number, or ISBN, which is
meant to be unique to every edition of every book produced by participating
publishers, worldwide. It is managed by the ISBN Society. An ISBN has
four parts: the first part is the country code, the second the publisher code,
and the third the title code. The last part is a check digit, and can take
values from 0–9 and X (10). The EAN Barcodes numbers for books are
derived from the ISBN by prefixing 978, for Bookland, and calculating a
new check digit.

Commercial publishers in industrialized countries generally assign ISBNs to

their books, so buyers may presume that the ISBN is part of a total
international system, with no exceptions. However, many government
publishers, in industrial as well as developing countries, do not participate
fully in the ISBN system, and publish books which do not have ISBNs. A
large or public collection requires a catalogue. Codes called "call numbers"
relate the books to the catalogue, and determine their locations on the
shelves. Call numbers are based on a Library classification system. The
call number is placed on the spine of the book, normally a short distance
before the bottom, and inside. Institutional or national standards, such
as ANSI/NISO Z39.41 – 1997, establish the correct way to place
information (such as the title, or the name of the author) on book spines,
and on "shelvable" book-like objects, such as containers for DVDs, video
tapes and software.

Books on library shelves and call numbers

visible on the spines
One of the earliest and most widely known systems of cataloguing books is
the Dewey Decimal System. Another widely known system is the Library of
Congress Classification system. Both systems are biased towards subjects
which were well represented in US libraries when they were developed,
and hence have problems handling new subjects, such as computing, or
subjects relating to other cultures.[62] Information about books and authors
can be stored in databases like online general-interest book
databases. Metadata, which means "data about data" is information about
a book. Metadata about a book may include its title, ISBN or other
classification number (see above), the names of contributors (author,
editor, illustrator) and publisher, its date and size, the language of the text,
its subject matter, etc.
Classification systems

 Bliss bibliographic classification (BC)

 Chinese Library Classification (CLC)
 Colon Classification
 Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC)
 Harvard-Yenching Classification
 Library of Congress Classification (LCC)
 New Classification Scheme for Chinese Libraries
 Universal Decimal Classification (UDC)
Conservation
This section is an excerpt from Conservation and restoration of books,
manuscripts, documents, and ephemera.[edit]

A conservation technician examining an artwork

under a microscope at the Indianapolis Museum of Art
The conservation and restoration of books, manuscripts, documents, and
ephemera is an activity dedicated to extending the life of items of historical
and personal value made primarily from paper, parchment, and leather.
When applied to cultural heritage, conservation activities are generally
undertaken by a conservator. The primary goal of conservation is to extend
the lifespan of the object as well as maintaining its integrity by keeping all
additions reversible. Conservation of books and paper involves techniques
of bookbinding, restoration, paper chemistry, and other material
technologies including preservation and archival techniques.[63]

Book and paper conservation seeks to prevent and, in some cases, reverse
damage due to handling, inherent vice, and the environment. Conservators
determine proper methods of storage for books and documents, including
boxes and shelving to prevent further damage and promote long term
storage. Carefully chosen methods and techniques of active conservation
can both reverse damage and prevent further damage in batches or single-
item treatments based on the value of the book or document.

Historically, book restoration techniques were less formalized and carried

out by various roles and training backgrounds. Nowadays, the conservation
of paper documents and books is often performed by a professional
conservator.[64][65] Many paper or book conservators are members of a
professional body, such as the American Institute for Conservation (AIC) or
the Guild of Bookworkers (both in the United States), the Archives and
Records Association (in the United Kingdom and Ireland), or the Institute of
Conservation (ICON) (in the United Kingdom).[66]
Social and cultural issues
Reception
Main article: Literary criticism
The impact of books can be various, and record of that reception comes in
several formats: starting with initial public reception in contemporary
newspapers, pop culture and correspondence, and then developing over
time with different forms of literary criticism by professional and academic
critics. For the publishing industry the "book review" is an important part of
increasing awareness and reception of a book: able to make or break the
public opinion about a newly published book.[citation needed]
Book reviews
This section is an excerpt from Book review.[edit]
A book review is a form of literary criticism in which a book is merely
described (summary review) or analyzed based on content, style, and
merit.[67]

A book review may be a primary source, an opinion piece, a summary

review, or a scholarly view.[68] Books can be reviewed for printed
periodicals, magazines, and newspapers, as school work, or for book
websites on the Internet. A book review's length may vary from a single
paragraph to a substantial essay. Such a review may evaluate the book
based on personal taste. Reviewers may use the occasion of a book review
for an extended essay that can be closely or loosely related to the subject
of the book, or to promulgate their ideas on the topic of a fiction or non-
fiction work.

Some journals are devoted to book reviews, and reviews are indexed in
databases such as the Book Review Index and Kirkus Reviews; but many
more book reviews can be found in newspaper and scholarly databases
such as Arts and Humanities Citation Index, Social Sciences Citation
Index , and discipline-specific databases.
Book censorship and bans
This section is an excerpt from Book censorship.[edit]
Book censorship is the act of some authority taking measures to suppress
ideas and information within a book. Censorship is "the regulation of free
speech and other forms of entrenched authority".[69] Censors typically
identify as either a concerned parent, community members who react to a
text without reading, or local or national organizations.[70] Books have been
censored by authoritarian dictatorships to silence dissent, such as
the People's Republic of China, Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union.
Books are most often censored for age appropriateness, offensive
language, sexual content, amongst other reasons.[71] Similarly, religions
may issue lists of banned books, such as the historical example of
the Catholic Church's Index Librorum Prohibitorum and bans of such books
as Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses by Ayatollah Khomeini,[72] which
do not always carry legal force. Censorship can be enacted at the national
or subnational level as well, and can carry legal penalties. In many cases,
the authors of these books could face harsh sentences, exile from the
country, or even execution.
Book burning
This section is an excerpt from Book burning.[edit]
 Contemporary book burning
Book burning is the deliberate destruction by fire of books or other written
materials, usually carried out in a public context. The burning of books
represents an element of censorship and usually proceeds from a cultural,
religious, or political opposition to the materials in question.[73] Book burning
can be an act of contempt for the book's contents or author, intended to
draw wider public attention to this opposition, or conceal the information
contained in the text from being made public, such as diaries or ledgers.
Burning and other methods of destruction are together known as
biblioclasm or libricide.

In some cases, the destroyed works are irreplaceable and their burning
constitutes a severe loss to cultural heritage. Examples include the burning
of books and burying of scholars under China's Qin dynasty (213–
210 BCE), the destruction of the House of Wisdom during the Mongol siege
of Baghdad (1258), the destruction of Aztec codices by Itzcoatl (1430s), the
burning of Maya codices on the order of bishop Diego de Landa (1562),
[74]
and the burning of Jaffna Public Library in Sri Lanka (1981).[75]

In other cases, such as the Nazi book burnings, copies of the destroyed
books survive, but the instance of book burning becomes emblematic of a
harsh and oppressive regime which is seeking to censor or silence some
aspect of prevailing culture.