A book is a medium for recording information in the form of writing or images, typically composed of many pages (made of papyrus, parchment, vellum, or paper) bound together and protected by a cover. The technical term for this physical arrangement is codex (plural, codices). In the history of hand-held physical supports for extended written compositions or records, the codex replaces its predecessor, the scroll. A single sheet in a codex is a leaf and each side of a leaf is a page. The intellectual content in a physical book need not be a composition, nor even be called a book. Books can consist only of drawings, engravings or photographs, crossword puzzles or cut-out dolls. In a physical book, the pages can be left blank or can feature an abstract set of lines to support entries, such as in an account book, an appointment book, an autograph book, a notebook, a diary or a sketchbook. Some physical books are made with pages thick and sturdy enough to support other physical objects, like a scrapbook or photograph album. Books may be distributed in electronic form as ebooks and other formats.
Although in ordinary academic parlance a monograph is understood to be a specialist academic work, rather than a reference work on a scholarly subject, in library and information science monograph denotes more broadly any non-serial publication complete in one volume (book) or a finite number of volumes (even a novel like Proust's seven-volume In Search of Lost Time), in contrast to serial publications like a magazine, journal or newspaper. An avid reader or collector of books is a bibliophile or colloquially, "bookworm". A place where books are traded is a bookshop or bookstore. Books are also sold elsewhere and can be borrowed from libraries. Google has estimated that by 2010, approximately 130, 000, 000 titles had been published. [2] In some wealthier nations, the sale of printed books has decreased because of the increased usage of ebooks. [3
A
book
is a medium for recording information in the form of writing or images,
typically
composed of
many
pages (made of papyrus, parchment, vellum, or paper) bound together and protected by a cover. The technical term for this
physical
arrangement is codex (plural, codices). In the history of hand-held
physical
supports for extended written compositions or records, the codex replaces its predecessor, the scroll. A single sheet in a codex is a leaf and each side of a leaf is a page. The intellectual content in a
physical
book
need not be a composition, nor even
be called
a
book
.
Books
can consist
only
of drawings, engravings or photographs, crossword puzzles or
cut
-out dolls. In a
physical
book
, the pages can be
left
blank or can feature an abstract set of lines to support entries, such as in an account
book
, an appointment
book
, an autograph
book
, a notebook, a diary or a sketchbook.
Some
physical
books
are made
with pages thick and sturdy
enough
to support other
physical
objects, like a scrapbook or photograph album.
Books
may
be distributed
in electronic form as
ebooks
and other formats.
Although in ordinary academic parlance a monograph
is understood
to be a specialist academic work,
rather
than a reference work on a
scholarly
subject, in library and information science monograph denotes more
broadly
any non-serial publication complete in one volume
(book)
or a finite number of volumes (even a novel like Proust's seven-volume In Search of Lost Time),
in contrast
to serial publications like a magazine, journal or newspaper. An avid reader or collector of
books
is a bibliophile or
colloquially
,
"
bookworm
"
. A place where
books
are traded
is a bookshop or bookstore.
Books
are
also
sold elsewhere and can
be borrowed
from libraries. Google has estimated that by 2010, approximately 130, 000, 000 titles had
been published
. [2] In
some
wealthier nations, the sale of printed
books
has decreased
because
of the increased usage of
ebooks
.
[
3