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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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. Modern books
are typically in codex format, composed of many pages that are bound together and
protected by a cover; they were preceded by several earlier formats, including 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 refers to a written work of substantial length, which may be
distributed either physically or digitally as an ebook. These works can be broadly classified
into fiction (containing invented content, often narratives) and non-fiction (containing content
intended as factual truth). A physical book may not contain such a work: for example, it may
contain only drawings, engravings, photographs, puzzles, or removable content like paper
dolls. It may also be left empty for personal use, as in the case of account books,
appointment books, autograph books, notebooks, diaries and sketchbooks.

Books are sold at both regular stores and specialized bookstores, as well as online for
delivery, and can be borrowed from libraries. The reception of books has led to a number of
social consequences, including censorship.

The modern book industry has seen several major changes due to new technologies,
including ebooks and audiobooks (recordings of books being read aloud). Awareness of the
needs of print-disabled people has led to a rise in formats designed for greater accessibility,
such as braille printing and large-print editions. Google Books estimated in 2010 that
approximately 130 million total unique books had been published.[1]
Etymology

The word book comes from the Old English bōc, which in turn likely comes from the
Germanic root *bōk-, cognate to "beech".[2] 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.[3] The Latin word codex, meaning a book in the modern sense (bound and with
separate leaves), originally meant "block of wood".[4]
An avid reader or collector of books is a bibliophile, or colloquially a "bookworm".
Definitions

In its modern incarnation, a book is typically composed of many pages (commonly of paper,
parchment, or vellum) that are bound together along one edge and protected by a cover. By
extension, book refers to a physical book's written, printed, or graphic contents.[5] 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.[6]

It is difficult to create a precise definition of the book that clearly delineates it from other
kinds of written material across time and culture. The meaning of the term has changed
substantially over time with the evolution of communication media.[7] 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 relying
on 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.[8][9]

A stricter definition is given by UNESCO: for the purpose of recording national statistics on
book production, it 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.[5][10] Kovač et al. have critiqued this definition for failing to account for new
digital formats. They propose four criteria (a minimum length; textual content; a form with
defined boundaries; and "information architecture" like linear structure and certain textual
elements) that form a "hierarchy of the book", in which formats that fulfill more criteria are
considered more similar to the traditional printed book.[11][12]

Although in academic language a monograph is a specialist work on a single subject, in

library and information science the term is 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.[13][6]
History
Main article: History of books
12-metre-high (40 ft) sculpture of a stack of books 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. It aims 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 can reveal 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 such evidence can
leave valuable clues about the nature of a particular book.
The earliest forms of writing were etched on tablets, transitioning to palm leaves and
papyrus in ancient times. Parchment and paper later emerged as important substrates for
bookmaking, introducing greater durability and accessibility.[14] 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.[15][16]

Prior to the invention of the printing press in the 15th century, 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.[17] Its
creation marked a pivotal moment for book production. 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.[18] 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 ebooks, propelled by the popularity of ereaders 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.[19]
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.[20]
Fragments of the Instructions of Shuruppak, dated to the early 3rd millennium BC
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.[21] The etymology of the word codex (block of wood)
suggests that it may have developed from wooden wax tablets.[22]
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.[23] 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.[24]

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.[25]

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.[26]
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.[27]
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.[28]
A 15th-century Incunable
19th century to present
Steam-powered printing presses became popular in the early 19th century. These machines
could print 1,100 sheets per hour,[29] 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.

During the 20th century, libraries faced an ever-increasing rate of publishing, sometimes
called an information explosion. The advent of electronic publishing and the internet means
that new information is often published online rather than in printed books, for example
through a digital library. "Print on demand" technologies, 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, and has allowed publishers to keep low-selling books in print rather
than declaring them out of print.
Contemporary publishing
Main article: Publishing

Presently, books are typically produced by a publishing company in order to be put on the
market by distributors and bookstores. The publisher negotiates a formal legal agreement
with authors in order 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 books,
including marketing and promotion. Each of these steps is usually taken on by third-party
companies paid by the publisher.[30] This is in contrast to self-publishing, where an author
pays for the production and distribution of their own work and manages some or all steps of
the publishing process.[31]

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

Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, and
Macmillan Publishers. They were estimated to make up almost 60 percent of the market for
general-readership books in 2021.[32]
Design
Main article: Book design

Book design is the art of incorporating the content, style, format, design, and sequence of
the various elements of a book into a coherent unit.[33]
Layout
See also: Page layout

Diagram of a book

Belly band
Flap
Endpaper
Cover
Head
Fore edge
Tail
 Right page (recto if printing is left to right, verso if right to left)
Left page (verso if printing is left to right, recto if right to left)
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.[34]

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.
Size
Main article: Book size

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.[35] A series of terms commonly used by
contemporary libraries and publishers for the general sizes of modern books ranges 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
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.
Illustration
Main article: Book illustration
illustration of crowing rooster facing the rising sun with a man, dressed in nightcap and
sleeping gown, leaning out the window. Background shows two small figures walking along a
fenced road.
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)

While some form of book illustration has existed since the invention of writing, the modern
Western tradition of illustration began with 15th-century block books, in which the book's text
and images were cut into the same block.[36] Techniques such as engraving, etching, and
lithography have also been influential.
Manufacturing
Several book spines displayed on a shelf

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.[37] 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.

Hardcover books have a stiff binding, while paperback books have cheaper, flexible covers
which tend to be less durable. 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.
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.

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
Main article: Bookbinding

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.
Retail and distribution
Main article: Bookselling

Bookselling is the commercial trading of books that forms the retail and distribution end of
the publishing process.
Accessible publishing
Main article: Accessible publishing
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, specialized fonts for certain kinds of reading disabilities, braille, ebooks, and
automated audiobooks and DAISY digital talking books.

Accessible publishing has been made easier through developments in technology such as
print on demand, ebook readers, the XML structured data format, the EPUB3 format and the
Internet.
Audiobooks
Main article: Audiobook

An audiobook or 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.
Ebooks
Main article: Ebook
A Kindle e-reader

An ebook (short for electronic book), also spelled 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.[38] Although sometimes defined
as "an electronic version of a printed book",[39] some ebooks exist without a printed
equivalent. Ebooks can be read on dedicated e-reader devices and on any computer device
that features a controllable viewing screen, including desktop computers, laptops, tablets
and smartphones.

In some markets, the sale of printed books has decreased due to the increased use of
ebooks. However, printed books still largely outsell ebooks, and many people have a
preference for print.[40][41][42][43]
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,[44] 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".[45][46]
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

Fiction books contain invented material, typically narratives. 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 extended works of narrative
fiction, typically featuring a plot, setting, themes and characters. The novel has had a
tremendous impact on entertainment and publishing markets.[47][better source needed] 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, encompassing subjects such as history,
politics, social and cultural issues, as well as autobiographies and memoirs. Nearly all
academic literature is non-fiction.
Reference
Main article: Reference work

Reference books are non-fiction books intended to be quickly referred to for information,
rather than read beginning to end. The writing style used in these works is informative; the
authors avoid opinions and the use of the first person, and emphasize facts.

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. An atlas is a book containing a collection of maps. A
specialized reference work giving information about a particular field or technique, 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
See also: Technical writing
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

Students often 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
Main article: Religious text

Religious texts, including scripture, are texts which various religions consider to be of central
importance to their religious tradition. They often feature a compilation or discussion of
beliefs, ritual practices, moral commandments and laws, ethical conduct, spiritual
aspirations, and admonitions for fostering a religious community.

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, which have only been
identified as children's literature since the eighteenth century, and songs, part of a wider oral
tradition, which 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.[48] 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.
A page from a notebook used as handwritten diary
Unpublished
See also: List of unpublished books

Many books are only used to record personal ideas, notes, and accounts, such as
notebooks, logbooks, commonplace books, and diaries. These books are rarely published
and are typically destroyed or remain private.

Address books, phone books, and calendar/appointment books are commonly used for
recording appointments, meetings and personal contact information. Businesses historically
used 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

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by
adding citations to reliable sources in this section. Unsourced material may be challenged
and removed. (August 2024) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Personal and public libraries, archives and other forms of book collection have led to the
creation of many different organization and classification strategies. In the 19th and 20th
century, libraries and library professionals systematized book collecting and classification
systems to respond to the growing industry. 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.

A library is a collection of books, and possibly other materials and media, that is accessible
for use by its members and members of allied institutions. Libraries provide physical (hard
copies) or digital (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location, a virtual space, or
both. A library's collection normally includes printed materials which may be borrowed, and
usually also includes a reference section of publications which may only be utilized inside
the premises. Resources such as commercial releases of films, television programs, other
video recordings, radio, music and audio recordings may be available in many formats.
These include DVDs, Blu-rays, CDs, cassettes, or other applicable formats such as
microform. They may also provide access to information, music or other content held on
bibliographic databases.

Libraries can vary widely in size and may be organized and maintained by a public body
such as a government, an institution (such as a school or museum), a corporation, or a
private individual. In addition to providing materials, libraries also provide the services of
librarians who are trained experts in finding, selecting, circulating and organising information
while interpreting information needs and navigating and analyzing large amounts of
information with a variety of resources.

Library buildings often provide quiet areas for studying, as well as common areas for group
study and collaboration, and may provide public facilities for access to their electronic
resources, such as computers and access to the Internet.

The library's clientele and general services offered vary depending on its type: users of a
public library have different needs from those of a special library or academic library, for
example. Libraries may also be community hubs, where programs are made available and
people engage in lifelong learning. Modern libraries extend their services beyond the
physical walls of the building by providing material accessible by electronic means, including
from home via the Internet.
Identification and classification
ISBN with barcode

In 2011, the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) created
the International Standard Bibliographic Description (ISBD) in order to standardize
descriptions in bibliographies and library catalogs. 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.[49] 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.[50]

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.[51][52] 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).[53]
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.[54]

A book review may be a primary source, an opinion piece, a summary review, or a scholarly
view.[55] 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".[56] Censors typically identify as either a concerned parent,
community members who react to a text without reading, or local or national
organizations.[57] 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.[58] 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,[59] 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.[60] 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),[61] and the
burning of Jaffna Public Library in Sri Lanka (1981).[62]
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.
See also

iconBooks portal

Outline of books
Lists of books
Open access book

References
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Further reading
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Book.
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Wikinews has news related to:
Book
 Raven, James, ed. (March 23, 2023). The Oxford History of the Book. Oxford: Oxford
University Press. doi:10.1093/oso/9780192886897.001.0001. ISBN 978-0-19-288689-7.
Eliot, Simon; Rose, Jonathan, eds. (August 16, 2019). A Companion to the History of the
Book. Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN 9781119018179.
Borsuk, Amaranth (May 4, 2018). The Book. MIT Press Essential Knowledge series. MIT
Press. ISBN 9780262535410.
Phillips, Angus; Bhaskar, Michael, eds. (April 18, 2019). The Oxford Handbook of
Publishing. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198794202.001.0001. ISBN
9780198794202.

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For other uses, see Book (disambiguation).

The Gutenberg Bible, one of the first books to

be printed using the printing press
Literature

Oral literature

● Folklore
○ fable
○ fairy tale
○ folk play
○ folksong
○ heroic epic
○ legend
○ myth
○ proverb
● Oration
● Performance
○ audiobook
○ spoken word
● Saying

Major written forms

 ● Drama
○ closet drama
● Poetry
○ lyric
○ narrative
● Prose
● Nonsense
○ verse
● Ergodic
● Electronic

Long prose fiction

● Anthology
● Serial
● Novel/romanc
e

Short prose fiction

● Novella
● Novelette
● Short story
● Drabble
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A book is a medium for recording information in the form of writing or images. Modern books
are typically in codex format, composed of many pages that are bound together and
protected by a cover; they were preceded by several earlier formats, including 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 refers to a written work of substantial length, which may be
distributed either physically or digitally as an ebook. These works can be broadly classified
into fiction (containing invented content, often narratives) and non-fiction (containing content
intended as factual truth). A physical book may not contain such a work: for example, it may
contain only drawings, engravings, photographs, puzzles, or removable content like paper
dolls. It may also be left empty for personal use, as in the case of account books,
appointment books, autograph books, notebooks, diaries and sketchbooks.

Books are sold at both regular stores and specialized bookstores, as well as online for
delivery, and can be borrowed from libraries. The reception of books has led to a number of
social consequences, including censorship.

The modern book industry has seen several major changes due to new technologies,
including ebooks and audiobooks (recordings of books being read aloud). Awareness of the
needs of print-disabled people has led to a rise in formats designed for greater accessibility,
such as braille printing and large-print editions. Google Books estimated in 2010 that
approximately 130 million total unique books had been published.[1]

Etymology
The word book comes from the Old English bōc, which in turn likely comes from the
Germanic root *bōk-, cognate to "beech".[2] 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.[3] The Latin word codex, meaning a book in the modern sense (bound and with
separate leaves), originally meant "block of wood".[4]

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

Definitions
In its modern incarnation, a book is typically composed of many pages (commonly of paper,
parchment, or vellum) that are bound together along one edge and protected by a cover. By
extension, book refers to a physical book's written, printed, or graphic contents.[5] 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.[6]

It is difficult to create a precise definition of the book that clearly delineates it from other
kinds of written material across time and culture. The meaning of the term has changed
substantially over time with the evolution of communication media.[7] 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 relying
on 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.[8][9]

A stricter definition is given by UNESCO: for the purpose of recording national statistics on
book production, it 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.[5][10] Kovač et al. have critiqued this definition for failing to account for new digital
formats. They propose four criteria (a minimum length; textual content; a form with defined
boundaries; and "information architecture" like linear structure and certain textual elements)
that form a "hierarchy of the book", in which formats that fulfill more criteria are considered
more similar to the traditional printed book.[11][12]

Although in academic language a monograph is a specialist work on a single subject, in

library and information science the term is 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.[13][6]

History
Main article: History of books

12-metre-high (40 ft) sculpture of a stack of books 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. It aims 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 can reveal 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 such evidence can
leave valuable clues about the nature of a particular book.

The earliest forms of writing were etched on tablets, transitioning to palm leaves and
papyrus in ancient times. Parchment and paper later emerged as important substrates for
bookmaking, introducing greater durability and accessibility.[14] 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.[15][16]

Prior to the invention of the printing press in the 15th century, 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.[17] Its
creation marked a pivotal moment for book production. 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.[18] 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 ebooks, propelled by the popularity of ereaders 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.[19]
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.[20]

Fragments of the Instructions of Shuruppak, dated to the early

3rd millennium BC

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.[21] The etymology of the word codex (block of wood)
suggests that it may have developed from wooden wax tablets.[22]

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.[23] 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.[24]

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.[25]

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.[26]

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.[27]
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.[28]

A 15th-century Incunable

19th century to present

Steam-powered printing presses became popular in the early 19th century. These machines
could print 1,100 sheets per hour,[29] 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.

During the 20th century, libraries faced an ever-increasing rate of publishing, sometimes
called an information explosion. The advent of electronic publishing and the internet means
that new information is often published online rather than in printed books, for example
through a digital library. "Print on demand" technologies, 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, and has allowed publishers to keep low-selling books in print rather
than declaring them out of print.

Contemporary publishing
Main article: Publishing

Presently, books are typically produced by a publishing company in order to be put on the
market by distributors and bookstores. The publisher negotiates a formal legal agreement
with authors in order 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 books,
including marketing and promotion. Each of these steps is usually taken on by third-party
companies paid by the publisher.[30] This is in contrast to self-publishing, where an author
pays for the production and distribution of their own work and manages some or all steps of
the publishing process.[31]

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

Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, and
Macmillan Publishers. They were estimated to make up almost 60 percent of the market for
general-readership books in 2021.[32]

Design
Main article: Book design

Book design is the art of incorporating the content, style, format, design, and sequence of
the various elements of a book into a coherent unit.[33]

Layout
See also: Page layout
 Diagram of a book

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.[34]

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.
Size
Main article: Book size

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.[35] A series of terms commonly used by
contemporary libraries and publishers for the general sizes of modern books ranges 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
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.

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)

While some form of book illustration has existed since the invention of writing, the modern
Western tradition of illustration began with 15th-century block books, in which the book's text
and images were cut into the same block.[36] Techniques such as engraving, etching, and
lithography have also been influential.

Manufacturing
 Several book spines displayed on a shelf

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.[37] 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.

Hardcover books have a stiff binding, while paperback books have cheaper, flexible covers
which tend to be less durable. 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.

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.

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
Main article: Bookbinding

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.

Retail and distribution

Main article: Bookselling

Bookselling is the commercial trading of books that forms the retail and distribution end of
the publishing process.

Accessible publishing
Main article: Accessible publishing
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, specialized fonts for certain kinds of reading disabilities, braille, ebooks, and
automated audiobooks and DAISY digital talking books.

Accessible publishing has been made easier through developments in technology such as
print on demand, ebook readers, the XML structured data format, the EPUB3 format and the
Internet.

Audiobooks
Main article: Audiobook

An audiobook or 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.

Ebooks
Main article: Ebook
 A Kindle e-reader

An ebook (short for electronic book), also spelled 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.[38] Although sometimes defined as
"an electronic version of a printed book",[39] some ebooks exist without a printed equivalent.
Ebooks can be read on dedicated e-reader devices and on any computer device that
features a controllable viewing screen, including desktop computers, laptops, tablets and
smartphones.

In some markets, the sale of printed books has decreased due to the increased use of
ebooks. However, printed books still largely outsell ebooks, and many people have a
preference for print.[40][41][42][43]

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,[44] 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".[45][46]

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

Fiction books contain invented material, typically narratives. 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 extended works of narrative
fiction, typically featuring a plot, setting, themes and characters. The novel has had a
tremendous impact on entertainment and publishing markets.[47][better source needed] 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, encompassing subjects such as history,
politics, social and cultural issues, as well as autobiographies and memoirs. Nearly all
academic literature is non-fiction.

Reference
Main article: Reference work

Reference books are non-fiction books intended to be quickly referred to for information,
rather than read beginning to end. The writing style used in these works is informative; the
authors avoid opinions and the use of the first person, and emphasize facts.

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. An atlas is a book containing a collection of maps. A
specialized reference work giving information about a particular field or technique, 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
See also: Technical writing

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
Students often 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
Main article: Religious text

Religious texts, including scripture, are texts which various religions consider to be of central
importance to their religious tradition. They often feature a compilation or discussion of
beliefs, ritual practices, moral commandments and laws, ethical conduct, spiritual
aspirations, and admonitions for fostering a religious community.

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, which have only been
identified as children's literature since the eighteenth century, and songs, part of a wider oral
tradition, which 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.[48] 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.

A page from a notebook used as handwritten diary

Unpublished
See also: List of unpublished books

Many books are only used to record personal ideas, notes, and accounts, such as
notebooks, logbooks, commonplace books, and diaries. These books are rarely published
and are typically destroyed or remain private.

Address books, phone books, and calendar/appointment books are commonly used for
recording appointments, meetings and personal contact information. Businesses historically
used 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

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this article by adding citations to reliable sources in this section. Unsourced
material may be challenged and removed. (August 2024) (Learn how and when
to remove this message)

Personal and public libraries, archives and other forms of book collection have led to the
creation of many different organization and classification strategies. In the 19th and 20th
century, libraries and library professionals systematized book collecting and classification
systems to respond to the growing industry. 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.

A library is a collection of books, and possibly other materials and media, that is accessible
for use by its members and members of allied institutions. Libraries provide physical (hard
copies) or digital (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location, a virtual space, or
both. A library's collection normally includes printed materials which may be borrowed, and
usually also includes a reference section of publications which may only be utilized inside
the premises. Resources such as commercial releases of films, television programs, other
video recordings, radio, music and audio recordings may be available in many formats.
These include DVDs, Blu-rays, CDs, cassettes, or other applicable formats such as
microform. They may also provide access to information, music or other content held on
bibliographic databases.

Libraries can vary widely in size and may be organized and maintained by a public body
such as a government, an institution (such as a school or museum), a corporation, or a
private individual. In addition to providing materials, libraries also provide the services of
librarians who are trained experts in finding, selecting, circulating and organising information
while interpreting information needs and navigating and analyzing large amounts of
information with a variety of resources.

Library buildings often provide quiet areas for studying, as well as common areas for group
study and collaboration, and may provide public facilities for access to their electronic
resources, such as computers and access to the Internet.

The library's clientele and general services offered vary depending on its type: users of a
public library have different needs from those of a special library or academic library, for
example. Libraries may also be community hubs, where programs are made available and
people engage in lifelong learning. Modern libraries extend their services beyond the
physical walls of the building by providing material accessible by electronic means, including
from home via the Internet.

Identification and classification

ISBN with barcode

In 2011, the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) created
the International Standard Bibliographic Description (ISBD) in order to standardize
descriptions in bibliographies and library catalogs. 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.[49] 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.[50]

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.[51][52] 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).[53]

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.[54]

A book review may be a primary source, an opinion piece, a summary review, or a scholarly
view.[55] 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".[56] Censors typically identify as either a concerned parent, community
members who react to a text without reading, or local or national organizations.[57] 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.[58]
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,[59] 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.[60] 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),[61] and the
burning of Jaffna Public Library in Sri Lanka (1981).[62]

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.

See also

● Books portal
● Outline of books
● Lists of books
● Open access book

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Further reading

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Book.

Wikiquote has quotations related to Book.

Wikinews has news related to:

Book
 ● Raven, James, ed. (March 23, 2023). The Oxford History of the Book. Oxford: Oxford
University Press. doi:10.1093/oso/9780192886897.001.0001. ISBN
978-0-19-288689-7.
● Eliot, Simon; Rose, Jonathan, eds. (August 16, 2019). A Companion to the History of
the Book. Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN 9781119018179.
● Borsuk, Amaranth (May 4, 2018). The Book. MIT Press Essential Knowledge series.
MIT Press. ISBN 9780262535410.
● Phillips, Angus; Bhaskar, Michael, eds. (April 18, 2019). The Oxford Handbook of
Publishing. Oxford University Press.
doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198794202.001.0001. ISBN 9780198794202.

● v
● t
● e

Books

Production
● Binding
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○ dust jackets
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Consumptio
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n
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○ list
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Related
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Categories:

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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. Modern books
are typically in codex format, composed of many pages that are bound together and
protected by a cover; they were preceded by several earlier formats, including 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 refers to a written work of substantial length, which may be
distributed either physically or digitally as an ebook. These works can be broadly classified
into fiction (containing invented content, often narratives) and non-fiction (containing content
intended as factual truth). A physical book may not contain such a work: for example, it may
contain only drawings, engravings, photographs, puzzles, or removable content like paper
dolls. It may also be left empty for personal use, as in the case of account books,
appointment books, autograph books, notebooks, diaries and sketchbooks.

Books are sold at both regular stores and specialized bookstores, as well as online for
delivery, and can be borrowed from libraries. The reception of books has led to a number of
social consequences, including censorship.

The modern book industry has seen several major changes due to new technologies,
including ebooks and audiobooks (recordings of books being read aloud). Awareness of the
needs of print-disabled people has led to a rise in formats designed for greater accessibility,
such as braille printing and large-print editions. Google Books estimated in 2010 that
approximately 130 million total unique books had been published.[1]

Etymology
The word book comes from the Old English bōc, which in turn likely comes from the
Germanic root *bōk-, cognate to "beech".[2] 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.[3] The Latin word codex, meaning a book in the modern sense (bound and with
separate leaves), originally meant "block of wood".[4]

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

Definitions
In its modern incarnation, a book is typically composed of many pages (commonly of paper,
parchment, or vellum) that are bound together along one edge and protected by a cover. By
extension, book refers to a physical book's written, printed, or graphic contents.[5] 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.[6]

It is difficult to create a precise definition of the book that clearly delineates it from other
kinds of written material across time and culture. The meaning of the term has changed
substantially over time with the evolution of communication media.[7] 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 relying
on 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.[8][9]

A stricter definition is given by UNESCO: for the purpose of recording national statistics on
book production, it 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.[5][10] Kovač et al. have critiqued this definition for failing to account for new digital
formats. They propose four criteria (a minimum length; textual content; a form with defined
boundaries; and "information architecture" like linear structure and certain textual elements)
that form a "hierarchy of the book", in which formats that fulfill more criteria are considered
more similar to the traditional printed book.[11][12]

Although in academic language a monograph is a specialist work on a single subject, in

library and information science the term is 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.[13][6]

History
Main article: History of books

12-metre-high (40 ft) sculpture of a stack of books 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. It aims 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 can reveal 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 such evidence can
leave valuable clues about the nature of a particular book.

The earliest forms of writing were etched on tablets, transitioning to palm leaves and
papyrus in ancient times. Parchment and paper later emerged as important substrates for
bookmaking, introducing greater durability and accessibility.[14] 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.[15][16]

Prior to the invention of the printing press in the 15th century, 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.[17] Its
creation marked a pivotal moment for book production. 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.[18] 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 ebooks, propelled by the popularity of ereaders 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.[19]
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.[20]

Fragments of the Instructions of Shuruppak, dated to the early

3rd millennium BC

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.[21] The etymology of the word codex (block of wood)
suggests that it may have developed from wooden wax tablets.[22]

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.[23] 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.[24]

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.[25]

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.[26]

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.[27]
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.[28]

A 15th-century Incunable

19th century to present

Steam-powered printing presses became popular in the early 19th century. These machines
could print 1,100 sheets per hour,[29] 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.

During the 20th century, libraries faced an ever-increasing rate of publishing, sometimes
called an information explosion. The advent of electronic publishing and the internet means
that new information is often published online rather than in printed books, for example
through a digital library. "Print on demand" technologies, 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, and has allowed publishers to keep low-selling books in print rather
than declaring them out of print.

Contemporary publishing
Main article: Publishing

Presently, books are typically produced by a publishing company in order to be put on the
market by distributors and bookstores. The publisher negotiates a formal legal agreement
with authors in order 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 books,
including marketing and promotion. Each of these steps is usually taken on by third-party
companies paid by the publisher.[30] This is in contrast to self-publishing, where an author
pays for the production and distribution of their own work and manages some or all steps of
the publishing process.[31]

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

Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, and
Macmillan Publishers. They were estimated to make up almost 60 percent of the market for
general-readership books in 2021.[32]

Design
Main article: Book design

Book design is the art of incorporating the content, style, format, design, and sequence of
the various elements of a book into a coherent unit.[33]

Layout
See also: Page layout
 Diagram of a book

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.[34]

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.
Size
Main article: Book size

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.[35] A series of terms commonly used by
contemporary libraries and publishers for the general sizes of modern books ranges 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
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.

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)

While some form of book illustration has existed since the invention of writing, the modern
Western tradition of illustration began with 15th-century block books, in which the book's text
and images were cut into the same block.[36] Techniques such as engraving, etching, and
lithography have also been influential.

Manufacturing
 Several book spines displayed on a shelf

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.[37] 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.

Hardcover books have a stiff binding, while paperback books have cheaper, flexible covers
which tend to be less durable. 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.

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.

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
Main article: Bookbinding

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.

Retail and distribution

Main article: Bookselling

Bookselling is the commercial trading of books that forms the retail and distribution end of
the publishing process.

Accessible publishing
Main article: Accessible publishing
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, specialized fonts for certain kinds of reading disabilities, braille, ebooks, and
automated audiobooks and DAISY digital talking books.

Accessible publishing has been made easier through developments in technology such as
print on demand, ebook readers, the XML structured data format, the EPUB3 format and the
Internet.

Audiobooks
Main article: Audiobook

An audiobook or 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.

Ebooks
Main article: Ebook
 A Kindle e-reader

An ebook (short for electronic book), also spelled 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.[38] Although sometimes defined as
"an electronic version of a printed book",[39] some ebooks exist without a printed equivalent.
Ebooks can be read on dedicated e-reader devices and on any computer device that
features a controllable viewing screen, including desktop computers, laptops, tablets and
smartphones.

In some markets, the sale of printed books has decreased due to the increased use of
ebooks. However, printed books still largely outsell ebooks, and many people have a
preference for print.[40][41][42][43]

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,[44] 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".[45][46]

Content
This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve
this article by adding citations to reliable sources in this section. Unsourced
material may be challenged and removed. (February 2024) (Learn how and
when to remove this message)

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

Fiction books contain invented material, typically narratives. 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 extended works of narrative
fiction, typically featuring a plot, setting, themes and characters. The novel has had a
tremendous impact on entertainment and publishing markets.[47][better source needed] 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, encompassing subjects such as history,
politics, social and cultural issues, as well as autobiographies and memoirs. Nearly all
academic literature is non-fiction.

Reference
Main article: Reference work

Reference books are non-fiction books intended to be quickly referred to for information,
rather than read beginning to end. The writing style used in these works is informative; the
authors avoid opinions and the use of the first person, and emphasize facts.

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. An atlas is a book containing a collection of maps. A
specialized reference work giving information about a particular field or technique, 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
See also: Technical writing

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
Students often 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
Main article: Religious text

Religious texts, including scripture, are texts which various religions consider to be of central
importance to their religious tradition. They often feature a compilation or discussion of
beliefs, ritual practices, moral commandments and laws, ethical conduct, spiritual
aspirations, and admonitions for fostering a religious community.

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, which have only been
identified as children's literature since the eighteenth century, and songs, part of a wider oral
tradition, which 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.[48] 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.

A page from a notebook used as handwritten diary

Unpublished
See also: List of unpublished books

Many books are only used to record personal ideas, notes, and accounts, such as
notebooks, logbooks, commonplace books, and diaries. These books are rarely published
and are typically destroyed or remain private.

Address books, phone books, and calendar/appointment books are commonly used for
recording appointments, meetings and personal contact information. Businesses historically
used 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

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve
this article by adding citations to reliable sources in this section. Unsourced
material may be challenged and removed. (August 2024) (Learn how and when
to remove this message)

Personal and public libraries, archives and other forms of book collection have led to the
creation of many different organization and classification strategies. In the 19th and 20th
century, libraries and library professionals systematized book collecting and classification
systems to respond to the growing industry. 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.

A library is a collection of books, and possibly other materials and media, that is accessible
for use by its members and members of allied institutions. Libraries provide physical (hard
copies) or digital (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location, a virtual space, or
both. A library's collection normally includes printed materials which may be borrowed, and
usually also includes a reference section of publications which may only be utilized inside
the premises. Resources such as commercial releases of films, television programs, other
video recordings, radio, music and audio recordings may be available in many formats.
These include DVDs, Blu-rays, CDs, cassettes, or other applicable formats such as
microform. They may also provide access to information, music or other content held on
bibliographic databases.

Libraries can vary widely in size and may be organized and maintained by a public body
such as a government, an institution (such as a school or museum), a corporation, or a
private individual. In addition to providing materials, libraries also provide the services of
librarians who are trained experts in finding, selecting, circulating and organising information
while interpreting information needs and navigating and analyzing large amounts of
information with a variety of resources.

Library buildings often provide quiet areas for studying, as well as common areas for group
study and collaboration, and may provide public facilities for access to their electronic
resources, such as computers and access to the Internet.

The library's clientele and general services offered vary depending on its type: users of a
public library have different needs from those of a special library or academic library, for
example. Libraries may also be community hubs, where programs are made available and
people engage in lifelong learning. Modern libraries extend their services beyond the
physical walls of the building by providing material accessible by electronic means, including
from home via the Internet.

Identification and classification

ISBN with barcode

In 2011, the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) created
the International Standard Bibliographic Description (ISBD) in order to standardize
descriptions in bibliographies and library catalogs. 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.[49] 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.[50]

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.[51][52] 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).[53]

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.[54]

A book review may be a primary source, an opinion piece, a summary review, or a scholarly
view.[55] 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".[56] Censors typically identify as either a concerned parent, community
members who react to a text without reading, or local or national organizations.[57] 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.[58]
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,[59] 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.[60] 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),[61] and the
burning of Jaffna Public Library in Sri Lanka (1981).[62]

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.

See also

● Books portal
● Outline of books
● Lists of books
● Open access book

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Further reading

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Book.

Wikiquote has quotations related to Book.

Wikinews has news related to:

Book
 ● Raven, James, ed. (March 23, 2023). The Oxford History of the Book. Oxford: Oxford
University Press. doi:10.1093/oso/9780192886897.001.0001. ISBN
978-0-19-288689-7.
● Eliot, Simon; Rose, Jonathan, eds. (August 16, 2019). A Companion to the History of
the Book. Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN 9781119018179.
● Borsuk, Amaranth (May 4, 2018). The Book. MIT Press Essential Knowledge series.
MIT Press. ISBN 9780262535410.
● Phillips, Angus; Bhaskar, Michael, eds. (April 18, 2019). The Oxford Handbook of
Publishing. Oxford University Press.
doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198794202.001.0001. ISBN 9780198794202.

● v
● t
● e

Books

Production
● Binding
● Covers
○ dust jackets
● Design
● Editing
● Illustration
○ Illuminated manuscripts
● Printing
○ edition
○ history
○ incunabula
○ instant book
○ limited edition
● Publishing
○ advance copy
○ hardcover
○ paperback
● Size
● Typesetting
● Volume (bibliography)
● Collection (publishing)
● Book series
Consumptio
● Awards
n
● Bestsellers
○ list
● Bibliography
● Bibliomania (tsundoku)
● Bibliophilia
● Bibliotherapy
● Bookmarks
● Bookselling
○ blurbs
○ book towns
○ history
○ used
● Censorship
● Clubs
● Collecting
● Digitizing
● Bookworm (insect)
● Furniture
○ bookcases
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● This page was last edited on 24 October