2) What Was the Last Book You Read?

Medium for recording information in the form of writing or images

A volume is a medium for recording information in the class of writing or images, typically composed of many pages (made of papyrus, parchment, vellum, or newspaper) spring together and protected by a cover.^[1] The technical term for this concrete organisation is codex (plural, codices). In the history of manus-held concrete 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 leafage is a page.

As an intellectual object, a book is prototypically a composition of such great length that information technology takes a considerable investment of time to compose and still considered as an investment of time to read. In a restricted sense, a book is a cocky-sufficient department or role of a longer composition, a usage reflecting that, in antiquity, long works had to be written on several scrolls and each scroll had to exist identified past the book it independent. Each function of Aristotle's Physics is chosen a book. In an unrestricted sense, a book is the compositional whole of which such sections, whether called books or chapters or parts, are parts.

The intellectual content in a physical book need non exist a limerick, nor fifty-fifty exist called a book. Books tin can consist merely of drawings, engravings or photographs, crossword puzzles or cutting-out dolls. In a physical volume, the pages can be left blank or can feature an abstruse gear up of lines to support entries, such as in an business relationship book, an appointment book, an autograph book, a notebook, a diary or a sketchbook. Some physical books are fabricated with pages thick and sturdy enough to support other concrete 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 bookish work, rather than a reference work on a scholarly subject, in library and data science monograph denotes more than broadly any non-serial publication consummate in one volume (book) or a finite number of volumes (fifty-fifty a novel like Proust'south seven-book In Search of Lost Time), in contrast to series publications like a magazine, periodical or paper. 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 tin exist borrowed from libraries. Google has estimated that past 2010, approximately 130,000,000 titles had been published.^[2] In some wealthier nations, the sale of printed books has decreased considering of the increased usage of ebooks.^[three]

Etymology

The discussion book comes from Old English bōc , which in turn comes from the Germanic root *bōk- , cognate to 'beech'.^[4] In Slavic languages like Russian, Bulgarian, Macedonian буква bukva —'letter' is cognate with 'beech'. In Russian, Serbian and Macedonian, the discussion букварь ( bukvar' ) or буквар ( bukvar ) refers to a principal schoolhouse textbook that helps young children chief the techniques of reading and writing. It is thus conjectured that the earliest Indo-European writings may have been carved on beech wood.^[5] The Latin give-and-take codex , meaning a book in the modern sense (bound and with separate leaves), originally meant 'cake of woods'.^{[ citation needed ]}

History

Antiquity

Fragments of the Instructions of Shuruppak: "Shurrupak gave instructions to his son: Practise not buy an ass which brays too much. Do not commit rape upon a man's daughter, do non denote information technology to the courtyard. Do not reply back against your father, practise not heighten a 'heavy eye.'". From Adab, c. 2600–2500 BCE^[6]

When writing systems were created in ancient civilizations, a variety of objects, such equally stone, clay, tree bawl, metallic sheets, and basic, were used for writing; these are studied in epigraphy.

Tablet

A tablet is a physically robust writing medium, suitable for casual transport and writing. Clay tablets were flattened and by and large dry pieces of dirt that could be easily carried, and impressed with a stylus. They were used as a writing medium, specially for writing in cuneiform, throughout the Statuary Historic period and well into the Iron Historic period. Wax tablets were pieces of wood covered in a blanket of wax thick enough to tape the impressions of a stylus. They were the normal writing material in schools, in accounting, and for taking notes. They had the advantage of beingness reusable: the wax could be melted, and reformed into a blank.

The custom of binding several wax tablets together (Roman pugillares) is a possible precursor of modern spring (codex) books.^[seven] The etymology of the give-and-take codex (block of forest) likewise suggests that it may accept adult from wooden wax tablets.^[8]

Curlicue

Scrolls can be made from papyrus, a thick paper-like material made by weaving the stems of the papyrus plant, then pounding the woven canvass with a hammer-like tool until it is flattened. Papyrus was used for writing in Ancient Egypt, perhaps equally early as the First Dynasty, although the offset evidence is from the business relationship books of King Neferirkare Kakai of the Fifth Dynasty (nigh 2400 BC).^[9] Papyrus sheets were glued together to form a scroll. Tree bark such as lime and other materials were also used.^[10]

Co-ordinate to Herodotus (History 5:58), the Phoenicians brought writing and papyrus to Hellenic republic effectually the tenth or 9th century BC. The Greek word for papyrus equally writing textile (biblion) and volume (biblos) come from the Phoenician port town Byblos, through which papyrus was exported to Greece.^[11] From Greek we likewise derive the word tome (Greek: τόμος), which originally meant a slice or piece and from in that location began to denote "a ringlet of papyrus". Tomus was used by the Latins with exactly the same meaning every bit volumen (see also beneath the caption by Isidore of Seville).

Whether fabricated from papyrus, parchment, or paper, scrolls were the dominant form of book in the Hellenistic, Roman, Chinese, Hebrew, and Macedonian cultures. The more modernistic codex book format form took over the Roman earth by tardily antiquity, merely the curl format persisted much longer in Asia.

Codex

A Chinese bamboo book meets the mod definition of Codex

Isidore of Seville (died 636) explained the then-current relation between codex, book and ringlet in his Etymologiae (Vi.13): "A codex is composed of many books; a book is of 1 scroll. It is called codex by style of metaphor from the trunks (codex) of trees or vines, equally if information technology were a wooden stock, because it contains in itself a multitude of books, as it were of branches." Modern usage differs.

A codex (in modern usage) is the showtime information repository that modern people would recognize as a "book": leaves of uniform size leap in some manner along one border, and typically held betwixt two covers made of some more robust textile. The first written mention of the codex equally a form of book is from Martial, in his Apophoreta CLXXXIV at the end of the offset century, where he praises its compactness. Still, the codex never gained much popularity in the infidel Hellenistic world, and only inside the Christian community did it gain widespread apply.^[12] This modify happened gradually during the 3rd and quaternary centuries, and the reasons for adopting the codex form of the book are several: the format is more economical, as both sides of the writing material can be used; and it is portable, searchable, and easy to muffle. A volume is much easier to read, to find a page that you want, and to flip through. A gyre is more awkward to use. The Christian authors may likewise take wanted to distinguish their writings from the pagan and Judaic texts written on scrolls. In add-on, some metal books were fabricated, that required smaller pages of metallic, instead of an impossibly long, unbending scroll of metal. A volume can also be easily stored in more compact places, or side by side in a tight library or shelf space.

Manuscripts

The autumn of the Roman Empire in the 5th century AD saw the decline of the culture of ancient Rome. Papyrus became difficult to obtain due to lack of contact with Egypt, and parchment, which had been used for centuries, became the main writing material. Parchment is a fabric made from processed animal peel and used—mainly in the by—for writing on. Parchment is most commonly made of calfskin, sheepskin, or goatskin. It was historically used for writing documents, notes, or the pages of a book. Parchment is limed, scraped and dried under tension. Information technology is not tanned, and is thus unlike from leather. This makes it more suitable for writing on, but leaves it very reactive to changes in relative humidity and makes it revert to rawhide if overly wet.

Monasteries carried on the Latin writing tradition in the Western Roman Empire. Cassiodorus, in the monastery of Vivarium (established effectually 540), stressed the importance of copying texts.^[13] St. Benedict of Nursia, in his Rule of Saint Benedict (completed around the centre of the 6th century) later also promoted reading.^[fourteen] The Rule of Saint Benedict (Ch. XLVIII), which set bated certain times for reading, greatly influenced the monastic culture of the Center Ages and is one of the reasons why the clergy were the predominant readers of books. The tradition and style of the Roman Empire withal dominated, but slowly the peculiar medieval book culture emerged.

The Codex Amiatinus anachronistically depicts the Biblical Ezra with the kind of books used in the 8th Century AD.

Before the invention and adoption of the printing press, near all books were copied by hand, which fabricated books expensive and insufficiently rare. Smaller monasteries usually had only a few dozen books, medium-sized perhaps a few hundred. Past the ninth century, larger collections held around 500 volumes and even at the terminate of the Middle Ages, the papal library in Avignon and Paris library of the Sorbonne held merely around 2,000 volumes.^[15]

The scriptorium of the monastery was ordinarily located over the affiliate house. Artificial light was forbidden for fear information technology may damage the manuscripts. At that place were five types of scribes:

• Calligraphers, who dealt in fine volume production
• Copyists, who dealt with bones production and correspondence
• Correctors, who collated and compared a finished book with the manuscript from which it had been produced
• Illuminators, who painted illustrations
• Rubricators, who painted in the red letters

Burgundian writer and scribe Jean Miélot, from his Miracles de Notre Matriarch, 15th century.

The bookmaking process was long and laborious. 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 the scribe, who usually left blank areas for analogy and rubrication. Finally, the volume was spring by the bookbinder.^[16]

Different types of ink were known in antiquity, commonly prepared from soot and gum, and later also from gall nuts and iron vitriol. This gave writing a chocolate-brown blackness color, but black or brown were not the simply colors used. There are texts written in ruddy or even gilt, and different colors were used for illumination. For very luxurious manuscripts the whole parchment was colored regal, and the text was written on information technology with gold or silvery (for example, Codex Argenteus).^[17]

Irish monks introduced spacing between words in the 7th century. This facilitated reading, as these monks tended to be less familiar with Latin. Withal, the apply of spaces between words did not become commonplace before the 12th century. It has been argued that the employ of spacing between words shows the transition from semi-vocalized reading into silent reading.^[eighteen]

The first books used parchment or vellum (calfskin) for the pages. The book covers were fabricated of wood and covered with leather. Because dried parchment tends to assume the grade it had earlier processing, the books were fitted with clasps or straps. During the later Middle Ages, when public libraries appeared, upward to the 18th century, books were often chained to a bookshelf or a desk to prevent theft. These chained books are called libri catenati.

At first, books were copied generally in monasteries, ane at a time. With the rising of universities in the 13th century, the Manuscript culture of the time led to an increase in the demand for books, and a new organisation for copying books appeared. The books were divided into unbound leaves (pecia), which were lent out to dissimilar 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.^[xix]

Judaism has kept the fine art of the scribe alive up to the present. According to Jewish tradition, the Torah scroll placed in a synagogue must be written by paw on parchment and a printed book would non exercise, though the congregation may apply printed prayer books and printed copies of the Scriptures are used for written report outside the synagogue. A sofer "scribe" is a highly respected member of any observant Jewish community.

Middle Due east

People of various religious (Jews, Christians, Zoroastrians, Muslims) and ethnic backgrounds (Syriac, Coptic, Persian, Arab etc.) in the Centre Eastward also produced and jump books in the Islamic Gilt Age (mid eighth century to 1258), developing advanced techniques in Islamic calligraphy, miniatures and bookbinding. A number of cities in the medieval Islamic globe had book production centers and book markets. Yaqubi (died 897) says that in his time Baghdad had over a hundred booksellers.^[20] Book shops were oft situated effectually the town's principal mosque^[21] every bit in Marrakesh, Morocco, that has a street named Kutubiyyin or book sellers in English and the famous Koutoubia Mosque is named so considering of its location in this street.

The medieval Muslim world as well used a method of reproducing reliable copies of a volume in big quantities known as bank check reading, in contrast to the traditional method of a single scribe producing only a single copy of a single manuscript. In the check reading method, only "authors could authorize copies, and this was done in public sessions in which the copyist read the copy aloud in the presence of the author, who then certified information technology as accurate."^[22] With this check-reading system, "an author might produce a dozen or more copies from a single reading," and with two or more readings, "more than one hundred copies of a unmarried book could easily be produced."^[23] Past using as writing fabric the relatively cheap newspaper instead of parchment or papyrus the Muslims, in the words of Pedersen "accomplished a feat of crucial significance non only to the history of the Islamic book, but also to the whole world of books".^[24]

Forest block printing

In woodblock printing, a relief image of an entire page was carved into blocks of wood, inked, and used to print copies of that page. This method originated in People's republic of china, in the Han dynasty (before 220 AD), equally a method of printing on textiles and later paper, and was widely used throughout Eastward Asia. The oldest dated volume printed past this method is The Diamond Sutra (868 AD). The method (called woodcut when used in fine art) arrived in Europe in the early 14th century. Books (known as block-books), every bit well every bit playing-cards and religious pictures, began to exist produced by this method. Creating an entire book was a painstaking procedure, requiring a hand-carved block for each page; and the wood blocks tended to crack, if stored for long. The monks or people who wrote them were paid highly.

Movable type and incunabula

A 15th-century Incunable. Detect the blind-tooled cover, corner bosses and clasps.

Selected Teachings of Buddhist Sages and Son Masters, the earliest known volume 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, merely there are no known surviving examples of his printing. Effectually 1450, in what is commonly regarded equally an independent invention, Johannes Gutenberg invented movable type in Europe, forth 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, unmarried sheets and images which were created earlier 1501 in Europe are known every bit incunables or incunabula. "A homo built-in in 1453, the year of the fall of Constantinople, could look back from his fiftieth year on a lifetime in which most 8 1000000 books had been printed, more than possibly than all the scribes of Europe had produced since Constantine founded his city in AD 330."^[25]

19th century to 21st centuries

Steam-powered printing presses became popular in the early 19th century. These machines could print 1,100 sheets per hour,^[26] only workers could only set ii,000 letters per hr.^{[ commendation needed ]} Monotype and linotype typesetting machines were introduced in the tardily 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. As well, the conditions for freedom of the press take been improved through the gradual relaxation of restrictive censorship laws. See as well intellectual holding, public domain, copyright. In mid-20th century, European volume production had risen to over 200,000 titles per year.

Throughout the 20th century, libraries have faced an ever-increasing rate of publishing, sometimes called an data explosion. The advent of electronic publishing and the internet means that much new information is not printed in paper books, but is made bachelor online through a digital library, on CD-ROM, in the grade of ebooks or other online media. An on-line book is an ebook that is available online through the internet. Though many books are produced digitally, most digital versions are not available to the public, and there is no reject in the charge per unit of paper publishing.^[27] There is an effort, all the same, to convert books that are in the public domain into a digital medium for unlimited redistribution and infinite availability. This endeavour is spearheaded by Project Gutenberg combined with Distributed Proofreaders. There have also been new developments in the process of publishing books. Technologies such every bit POD or "print on demand", which make it possible to print as few equally ane book at a time, have made self-publishing (and vanity publishing) much easier and more affordable. On-demand publishing has allowed publishers, past fugitive the loftier costs of warehousing, to keep depression-selling books in print rather than declaring them out of print.

Indian manuscripts

Goddess Saraswati image dated 132 Advert excavated from Kankali tila depicts her belongings a manuscript in her left hand represented every bit a bound and tied palm leafage or birch bark manuscript. In Bharat a bounded manuscript made of birch bark or palm leaf existed next since antiquity.^[28] The text in palm leafage manuscripts was inscribed with a pocketknife pen on rectangular cut and cured palm foliage sheets; colourings were 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 laissez passer, and with these the sheets were tied together with a string to demark similar a book.

Mesoamerican Codex

The codices of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica (Mexico and Primal America) had the same class 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 practical before writing. New World codices were written as late as the 16th century (run across Maya codices and Aztec codices). Those written before the Castilian conquests seem all to accept been single long sheets folded concertina-manner, sometimes written on both sides of the local amatl newspaper.

Modern manufacturing

The spine of the book is an of import aspect in book design, specially in the cover pattern. When the books are stacked up or stored in a shelf, the details on the spine is the only visible surface that contains the information almost the book. In stores, information technology is the details on the spine that attract a buyer's attention first.

The methods used for the press and binding of books continued fundamentally unchanged from the 15th century into the early 20th century. While there was more than mechanization, a book printer in 1900 had much in common with Gutenberg. Gutenberg's invention was the use of movable metal types, assembled into words, lines, and pages and then printed by letterpress to create multiple copies. Modernistic newspaper books are printed on papers designed specifically for printed books. Traditionally, volume papers are off-white or low-white papers (easier to read), are opaque to minimise the show-through of text from one side of the page to the other and are (ordinarily) made to tighter caliper or thickness specifications, particularly for case-bound books. Different paper qualities are used depending on the blazon 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 commencement lithography.^[29] When a book is printed, the pages are laid out on the plate so that after the printed sheet is folded the pages will exist in the correct sequence. Books tend to be manufactured present in a few standard sizes. The sizes of books are ordinarily specified equally "trim size": the size of the folio later on the sheet has been folded and trimmed. The standard sizes result from canvas sizes (therefore car sizes) which became popular 200 or 300 years ago, and have come to dominate the manufacture. British conventions in this regard prevail throughout the English-speaking globe, except for the USA. The European book manufacturing manufacture works to a completely different ready of standards.

Processes

Layout

Parts of a modern case bound book

Mod bound books are organized according to a particular format chosen the book's layout. Although there is groovy variation in layout, modern books tend to adhere to a gear up of rules with regard to what the parts of the layout are and what their content commonly includes. A basic layout will include a front end cover, a back embrace and the book's content which is chosen its body copy or content pages. The front cover frequently bears the volume'south championship (and subtitle, if any) and the name of its author or editor(southward). The inside front encompass folio is usually left blank in both hardcover and paperback books. The next department, if present, is the book's front matter, which includes all textual cloth later on the front cover but not role of the book's content such as a foreword, a dedication, a table of contents and publisher data such as the book'due south edition or press number and identify of publication. Between the body copy and the back embrace 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 normally places cited works at the end of each authored affiliate). The inside back cover page, like that inside the front comprehend, is unremarkably blank. The back cover is the usual place for the book's ISBN and maybe a photo of the author(southward)/ editor(s), perhaps with a short introduction to them. As well hither frequently announced plot summaries, barcodes and excerpted reviews of the volume.^[30]

Printing

Some books, peculiarly those with shorter runs (i.e. with fewer copies) will be printed on sheet-fed outset presses, merely most books are now printed on spider web presses, which are fed past a continuous gyre of paper, and can consequently print more copies in a shorter time. Equally the product line circulates, a complete "book" is nerveless together in one stack of pages, and another car carries out the folding, pleating, and stitching of the pages into bundles of signatures (sections of pages) gear up to become into the gathering line. Note that the pages of a book are printed ii at a time, not equally one complete book. Excess numbers are printed to make up for any spoilage due to make-readies or examination pages to assure final impress quality.

A brand-ready is the preparatory work carried out by the pressmen to become the printing press upwards to the required quality of impression. Included in make-ready is the fourth dimension taken to mount the plate onto the machine, clean up any mess from the previous chore, and go the press up to speed. As before long equally the pressman decides that the printing is correct, all the make-ready sheets will exist discarded, and the press will start making books. Similar make readies take place in the folding and binding areas, each involving spoilage of paper.

Binding

After the signatures are folded and gathered, they move into the bindery. In the middle of last century there were notwithstanding many trade binders – stand-alone bounden companies which did no press, specializing in binding alone. At that time, because of the dominance of letterpress printing, typesetting and press took identify in one location, and bounden in a different manufacturing plant. When type was all metal, a typical book'southward worth of type would be beefy, fragile and heavy. The less it was moved in this condition the better: and then printing would be carried out in the same location as the typesetting. Printed sheets on the other paw could easily exist moved. Now, because of increasing computerization of preparing a book for the printer, the typesetting part of the chore has flowed upstream, where it is done either by separately contracting companies working for the publisher, by the publishers themselves, or even past the authors. Mergers in the book manufacturing industry mean that information technology is at present unusual to find a bindery which is not besides involved in volume printing (and vice versa).

If the book is a hardback its path through the bindery will involve more points of action than if information technology is a paperback. Unsewn binding, is at present increasingly common. The signatures of a book can also be held together by "Smyth sewing" using needles, "McCain sewing", using drilled holes ofttimes used in schoolbook binding, or "notch binding", where gashes about an inch long are fabricated at intervals through the fold in the spine of each signature. The remainder of the bounden process is similar in all instances. Sewn and notch leap books tin can be bound as either hardbacks or paperbacks.

Finishing

"Making cases" happens off-line and prior to the volume's arrival at the binding line. In the most bones example-making, two pieces of cardboard are placed onto a glued slice of material with a space between them into which is glued a thinner lath 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 downward to adhere. Later on case-making the stack of cases will go to the foil stamping surface area for calculation decorations and type.

Digital printing

Recent developments in book manufacturing include the development of digital press. Book pages are printed, in much the same way as an office copier works, using toner rather than ink. Each book is printed in 1 pass, not as separate signatures. Digital printing has permitted the manufacture of much smaller quantities than offset, in part because of the absenteeism of make readies and of spoilage. One might think of a spider web press as printing quantities over 2000, quantities from 250 to 2000 being printed on canvass-fed presses, and digital presses doing quantities below 250. These numbers are of course only guess and will vary from supplier to supplier, and from volume to book depending on its characteristics. 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.

Ebook

A screen of a Kindle e-reader.

In the 2000s, due to the rise in availability of affordable handheld computing devices, the opportunity to share texts through electronic means became an appealing option for media publishers.^[31] Thus, the "ebook" was made. The term ebook is a contraction of "electronic book"; it refers to a book-length publication in digital form.^[32] An ebook is usually made available through the net, simply also on CD-ROM and other forms. Ebooks may be read either via a computing device with an LED display such as a traditional figurer, a smartphone or a tablet calculator; or by means of a portable e-ink display device known every bit an ebook reader, such as the Sony Reader, Barnes & Noble Nook, Kobo eReader, or the Amazon Kindle. Ebook readers endeavour to mimic the experience of reading a print volume by using this technology, since the displays on ebook readers are much less cogitating.

Design

Volume blueprint is the fine art of incorporating the content, style, format, pattern, and sequence of the diverse components of a book into a coherent whole. In the words of January Tschichold, book pattern "though largely forgotten today, methods and rules upon which it is incommunicable to improve have been developed over centuries. To produce perfect books these rules have to be brought back to life and applied." Richard Hendel describes book design as "an arcane subject area" and refers to the need for a context to sympathise what that means. Many different creators can contribute to book pattern, including graphic designers, artists and editors.

Sizes

Actual-size facsimile of the Codex Gigas, also known every bit the 'Devil's Bible' (from the analogy at right)

A folio from the world'due south largest book. Each folio is three and a half feet wide, v feet tall and a little over five inches thick

The size of a modern book is based on the printing area of a mutual flatbed press. The pages of blazon were arranged and clamped in a frame, so that when printed on a canvas of paper the full size of the press, the pages would exist right side upwardly and in gild when the sheet was folded, and the folded edges trimmed.

The nearly common volume sizes are:

• Quarto (4to): the sheet of paper is folded twice, forming four leaves (eight pages) approximately 11–13 inches (c. thirty cm) tall
• Octavo (8vo): the most common size for current hardcover books. The canvas is folded three times into eight leaves (16 pages) upward to 9+ 3⁄4 inches (c. 23 cm) alpine.
• DuoDecimo (12mo): a size between 8vo and 16mo, up to 7+ 3⁄iv inches (c. 18 cm) tall
• Sextodecimo (16mo): the sail is folded iv times, forming 16 leaves (32 pages) upward to half dozen+ 3⁄4 inches (c. 15 cm) alpine

Sizes smaller than 16mo are:

• 24mo: upwardly to 5+ three⁄4 inches (c. thirteen cm) alpine.
• 32mo: upwards to v inches (c. 12 cm) tall.
• 48mo: up to 4 inches (c. x cm) tall.
• 64mo: up to iii inches (c. viii cm) tall.

Small books can be called booklets.

Sizes larger than quarto are:

• Folio: upwards to 15 inches (c. 38 cm) tall.
• Elephant Folio: upward to 23 inches (c. 58 cm) tall.
• Atlas Folio: up to 25 inches (c. 63 cm) tall.
• Double Elephant Folio: upward to l inches (c. 127 cm) alpine.

The largest extant medieval manuscript in the world is Codex Gigas 92 × fifty × 22 cm. The earth'southward largest book is made of stone and is in Kuthodaw Pagoda (Burma).

Types

By content

A common separation by content are fiction and not-fiction books. This simple separation can be found in most collections, libraries, and bookstores. There are other types such as books of sheet music.

Fiction

Many of the books published today are "fiction", meaning that they comprise invented material, and are creative literature. Other literary forms such every bit poesy are included in the wide category. Most fiction is additionally categorized by literary form and genre.

The novel is the about common form of fiction book. Novels are stories that typically characteristic a plot, setting, themes and characters. Stories and narrative are non restricted to any topic; a novel can be whimsical, serious or controversial. The novel has had a tremendous impact on entertainment and publishing markets.^[33] A novella is a term sometimes used for fiction prose typically between 17,500 and 40,000 words, and a novelette between vii,500 and 17,500. A curt story may be any length up to 10,000 words, merely these word lengths vary.

Comic books or graphic novels are books in which the story is illustrated. The characters and narrators utilize speech or thought bubbling to express verbal language.

Not-fiction

Non-fiction books are in principle based on fact, on subjects such as history, politics, social and cultural issues, besides every bit autobiographies and memoirs. Nearly all academic literature is non-fiction. A reference book is a general type of not-fiction volume which provides information as opposed to telling a story, essay, commentary, or otherwise supporting a point of view.

An almanac is a very full general reference book, ordinarily one-volume, with lists of data and data on many topics. An encyclopedia is a book or set of books designed to have more in-depth articles on many topics. A book listing words, their etymology, meanings, and other information is called a dictionary. A book which is a collection of maps is an atlas. A more than specific reference volume with tables or lists of information and information nigh a sure topic, often intended for professional use, is oftentimes called a handbook. Books which try to listing references and abstracts in a sure broad area may be called an index, such as Engineering Alphabetize, or abstracts such every bit chemical abstracts and biological abstracts.

Books with technical information on how to do something or how to utilise some equipment are chosen didactics manuals. Other popular how-to books include cookbooks and abode improvement books.

Students typically store and carry textbooks and schoolbooks for study purposes.

Unpublished

Many types of book are individual, often filled in past the possessor, for a diverseness of personal records. Simple schoolhouse 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 test using a blue volume.

There is a large set of books that are made only to write private ideas, notes, and accounts. These books are rarely published and are typically destroyed or remain private. Notebooks are blank papers to exist written in by the user. Students and writers unremarkably use them for taking notes. Scientists and other researchers use lab notebooks to record their notes. They often feature spiral curlicue bindings at the edge and then that pages may hands be torn out.

Accost books, phone books, and calendar/appointment books are ordinarily used on a daily basis for recording appointments, meetings and personal contact information. Books for recording periodic entries by the user, such as daily information about a journey, are called logbooks or only logs. A like book for writing the owner's daily private personal events, information, and ideas is called a diary or personal journal. Businesses employ accounting books such as journals and ledgers to record financial information in a do called bookkeeping (now usually held on computers rather than in mitt-written form).

Other

In that location are several other types of books which are non commonly establish under this system. Albums are books for property a grouping of items belonging to a item theme, such every bit a set of photographs, card collections, and memorabilia. One common example is postage albums, which are used past many hobbyists to protect and organize their collections of postage stamps. Such albums are often made using removable plastic pages held inside in a ringed folder or other like holder. Picture books are books for children with pictures on every page and less text (or fifty-fifty no text).

Hymnals are books with collections of musical hymns that tin typically be found in churches. Prayerbooks or missals are books that contain written prayers and are usually carried by monks, nuns, and other devoted followers or clergy. Lap books are a learning tool created past students.

Decodable readers and leveling

A leveled volume drove is a gear up of books organized in levels of difficulty from the easy books appropriate for an emergent reader to longer more complex books acceptable for advanced readers. Decodable readers or books are a specialized type of leveled books that employ decodable text merely including controlled lists of words, sentences and stories consistent with the letters and phonics that have been taught to the emergent reader. New sounds and letters are added to higher level decodable books, every bit the level of teaching progresses, allowing for higher levels of accuracy, comprehension and fluency.

By concrete format

Hardcover books have a strong binding. Paperback books accept cheaper, flexible covers which tend to exist less durable. An alternative to paperback is the glossy embrace, otherwise known every bit a dust embrace, establish on magazines, and comic books. Spiral-jump books are bound past spirals made of metallic or plastic. Examples of screw-bound books include teachers' manuals and puzzle books (crosswords, sudoku).

Publishing is a process for producing pre-printed books, magazines, and newspapers for the reader/user to buy.

Publishers may produce depression-cost, pre-publication copies known as galleys or 'bound proofs' for promotional purposes, such every bit generating reviews in accelerate of publication. Galleys are unremarkably made every bit cheaply equally possible, since they are not intended for sale.

Dummy books

Cigarette smuggling with a book

Dummy books (or faux books) are books that are designed to imitate a real book past appearance to deceive people, some books may be whole with empty pages, others may exist hollow or in other cases, there may be a whole panel carved with spines which are and 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 equally; to allude visitors of the vast wealth of information in their possession and to inflate the owner's appearance of wealth, to conceal something,^[34] 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, still, at the later part of that same century, the public became enlightened that parts of his library was a fabrication, dummy books were built and and so locked behind drinking glass doors to stop people from trying to access them, from this a saying was born, "Like Hesky'southward library, all outside".^{[35] [36]}

Libraries

Individual or personal libraries made up of non-fiction and fiction books, (as opposed to the state or institutional records kept in athenaeum) first appeared in classical Greece. In the aboriginal globe, the maintaining of a library was unremarkably (but not exclusively) the privilege of a wealthy individual. These libraries could have been either private or public, i.east. for people who were interested in using them. The difference from a modern public library lies in that they were usually not funded from public sources. It is estimated that in the urban center of Rome at the end of the 3rd century there were effectually 30 public libraries. Public libraries too existed in other cities of the ancient Mediterranean region (for example, Library of Alexandria).^[37] Later, in the Eye Ages, monasteries and universities had too libraries that could be accessible to general public. Typically not the whole collection was bachelor to public, the books could not exist borrowed and frequently were chained to reading stands to prevent theft.

The beginning of modern public library begins around 15th century when individuals started to donate books to towns.^[38] The growth of a public library organisation in the United states started in the belatedly 19th century and was much helped by donations from Andrew Carnegie. This reflected classes in a club: The poor or the center class had to admission nigh books through a public library or by other means while the rich could afford to have a private library built in their homes. In the United States the Boston Public Library 1852 Report of the Trustees established the justification for the public library as a taxation-supported institution intended to extend educational opportunity and provide for general culture.^[39]

The advent of paperback books in the 20th century led to an explosion of popular publishing. Paperback books fabricated owning books affordable for many people. Paperback books often included works from genres that had previously been published mostly in pulp magazines. As a event of the low cost of such books and the spread of bookstores filled with them (in addition to the cosmos of a smaller market of extremely cheap used paperbacks) owning a private library ceased to be a status symbol for the rich.

In library and booksellers' catalogues, it is common to include an abridgement such equally "Crown 8vo" to indicate the paper size from which the book is made.

When rows of books are lined on a book holder, bookends are sometimes needed to keep them from slanting.

Identification and classification

During the 20th century, librarians were concerned nigh keeping track of the many books being added yearly to the Gutenberg Galaxy. Through a global lodge called the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA), they devised a serial of tools including the International Standard Bibliographic Description (ISBD). Each volume is specified by an International Standard Book Number, or ISBN, which is unique to every edition of every book produced past participating publishers, worldwide. Information technology is managed by the ISBN Society. An ISBN has four parts: the outset role is the country code, the second the publisher code, and the third the title code. The terminal part is a cheque digit, and can accept 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 assume that the ISBN is part of a total international system, with no exceptions. Nonetheless, many government publishers, in industrial too as developing countries, do non participate fully in the ISBN system, and publish books which do non have ISBNs. A large or public collection requires a catalogue. Codes chosen "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 volume, ordinarily a short distance before the bottom, and inside. Institutional or national standards, such as ANSI/NISO Z39.41 – 1997, establish the correct mode to place data (such as the title, or the name of the author) on book spines, and on "shelvable" volume-like objects, such as containers for DVDs, video tapes and software.

Books on library shelves and telephone call numbers visible on the spines

One of the earliest and nigh widely known systems of cataloguing books is the Dewey Decimal Organization. Some other widely known organisation is the Library of Congress Classification organization. Both systems are biased towards subjects which were well represented in U.s.a. libraries when they were developed, and hence have problems handling new subjects, such as computing, or subjects relating to other cultures.^[twoscore] Data about books and authors tin can be stored in databases like online general-involvement book databases. Metadata, which ways "data about information" is information about a book. Metadata near a book may include its title, ISBN or other nomenclature number (meet above), the names of contributors (writer, editor, illustrator) and publisher, its date and size, the language of the text, its field of study 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 Nomenclature Scheme for Chinese Libraries
• Universal Decimal Classification (UDC)

Uses

Aside from the primary purpose of reading them, books are also used for other ends:

• A book tin be an artistic artifact, a piece of art; this is sometimes known as an artists' book.
• A book may be evaluated by a reader or professional person writer to create a volume review.
• A book may be read by a group of people to utilise as a spark for social or academic discussion, every bit in a volume club.
• A book may exist studied by students as the subject of a writing and assay exercise in the form of a book report.
• Books are sometimes used for their exterior appearance to decorate a room, such as a study.

Marketing

In one case the volume is published, information technology is put on the market by the distributors and the bookstores. Meanwhile, his promotion comes from diverse media reports. Book marketing is governed by the law in many states.

Secondary spread

In recent years, the volume had a 2d life in the course of reading aloud. This is called public readings of published works, with the assist of professional readers (often known actors) and in shut collaboration with writers, publishers, booksellers, librarians, leaders of the literary world and artists.

Many individual or collective practices exist to increase the number of readers of a book. Amid them:

• abandonment of books in public places, coupled or not with the utilise of the Internet, known as the bookcrossing;
• provision of free books in third places like bars or cafes;
• afoot or temporary libraries;
• free public libraries in the expanse.

Manufacture development

This form of the volume chain has inappreciably changed since the eighteenth century, and has not e'er been this way. Thus, the author has asserted gradually with fourth dimension, and the copyright dates simply from the nineteenth century. For many centuries, especially before the invention of printing, each freely copied out books that passed through his easily, calculation if necessary his ain comments. Similarly, bookseller and publisher jobs have emerged with the invention of printing, which fabricated the book an industrial product, requiring structures of production and marketing.

The invention of the Internet, due east-readers, tablets, and projects like Wikipedia and Gutenberg, are likely to alter the volume industry for years to come.

Paper and conservation

Paper was get-go made in China as early on as 200 BC, and reached Europe through Muslim territories. At first fabricated of rags, the industrial revolution changed paper-making practices, allowing for paper to be made out of wood pulp. Papermaking in Europe began in the 11th century, although vellum was besides common there as page fabric up until the beginning of the 16th century, vellum being the more expensive and durable option. Printers or publishers would often issue the same publication on both materials, to cater to more than than i market.

Paper made from wood pulp became popular in the early 20th century, because it was cheaper than linen or abaca cloth-based papers. Pulp-based paper made books less expensive to the general public. This paved the way for huge leaps in the rate of literacy in industrialised nations, and enabled the spread of information during the 2nd Industrial Revolution.

Pulp paper, however, contains acid which eventually destroys the newspaper from inside. Earlier techniques for making paper used limestone rollers, which neutralized the acid in the lurid. Books printed betwixt 1850 and 1950 are primarily at adventure; more recent books are often printed on acid-free or element of group i newspaper. Libraries today have to consider mass deacidification of their older collections in order to prevent decay.

Stability of the climate is critical to the long-term preservation of paper and volume fabric.^[41] Good air circulation is important to keep fluctuation in climate stable. The HVAC system should be up to date and operation efficiently. Low-cal is detrimental to collections. Therefore, care should be given to the collections by implementing light control. General housekeeping issues can be addressed, including pest control. In addition to these helpful solutions, a library must also make an effort to be prepared if a disaster occurs, ane that they cannot control. Fourth dimension and attempt should be given to create a concise and effective disaster plan to counteract whatever damage incurred through "acts of God", therefore an emergency management plan should be in place.

Come across also

• Outline of books
• Alphabet volume
• Creative person's book
• Audiobook
• Bibliodiversity
• Book called-for
• Booksellers
• Lists of books
• Miniature volume
• Open access book
• Society for the History of Authorship, Reading and Publishing (Sharp)

Citations

1. ^ IEILS, p. 41
2. ^ "Books of the earth, stand up up and be counted! All 129,864,880 of you". Baronial 5, 2010. Retrieved August 15, 2010. Later on we exclude serials, we tin can finally count all the books in the world. In that location are 129,864,880 of them. At least until Sunday.
3. ^ Curtis, George (2011). The Law of Cybercrimes and Their Investigations. p. 161.
4. ^ "Book". Dictionary.com . Retrieved November 6, 2010.
5. ^ "Northvegr – Holy Language Lexicon". Nov 3, 2008. Archived from the original on November iii, 2008. Retrieved December thirty, 2016.
6. ^ Biggs, Robert D. (1974). Inscriptions from Tell Abū Ṣalābīkh (PDF). Oriental Institute Publications. University of Chicago Press. ISBN0-226-62202-9.
7. ^ Leila Avrin. Scribes, Script and Books, p. 173.
8. ^ Bischoff, Bernhard (1990). Latin palaeography antiquity and the Middle Ages. Dáibhí ó Cróinin. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 11. ISBN978-0-521-36473-7.
9. ^ Avrin, Leila (1991). Scribes, script, and books: the book arts from antiquity to the Renaissance. New York, New York: American Library Association; The British Library. p. 83. ISBN978-0-8389-0522-7.
10. ^ Dard Hunter. Papermaking: History and Technique of an Ancient Craft New ed. Dover Publications 1978, p. 12.
11. ^ Leila Avrin. Scribes, Script and Books, pp. 144–45.
12. ^ The Cambridge History of Early Christian Literature. Edd. Frances Young, Lewis Ayres, Andrew Louth, Ron White. Cambridge University Printing 2004, pp. 8–9.
13. ^ Leila Avrin. Scribes, Script and Books, pp. 207–08.
14. ^ Theodore Maynard. Saint Benedict and His Monks. Staples Press Ltd 1956, pp. seventy–71.
15. ^ Martin D. Joachim. Historical Aspects of Cataloguing and Classification. Haworth Printing 2003, p. 452.
16. ^ Edith Diehl. Bookbinding: Its Background and Technique. Dover Publications 1980, pp. 14–16.
17. ^ Bernhard Bischoff. Latin Palaeography, pp. 16–17.
18. ^ Paul Saenger. Space Betwixt Words: The Origins of Silent Reading. Stanford University Press 1997.
19. ^ Bernhard Bischoff. Latin Palaeography, pp. 42–43.
20. ^ Due west. Durant, "The Age of Faith", New York 1950, p. 236
21. ^ S.E. Al-Djazairi "The Golden Age of Islamic Civilization", Manchester 2996, p. 200
22. ^ Edmund Burke (June 2009). "Islam at the Center: Technological Complexes and the Roots of Modernity". Journal of World History. 20 (2): 165–86 [43]. doi:10.1353/jwh.0.0045. S2CID 143484233.
23. ^ Edmund Burke (June 2009). "Islam at the Eye: Technological Complexes and the Roots of Modernity". Journal of Globe History. 20 (2): 165–86 [44]. doi:ten.1353/jwh.0.0045. S2CID 143484233.
24. ^ Johs. Pedersen, "The Arabic Volume", Princeton University Press, 1984, p. 59
25. ^ Clapham, Michael, "Printing" in A History of Technology, Vol two. From the Renaissance to the Industrial Revolution, edd. Charles Singer et al. (Oxford 1957), p. 377. Cited from Elizabeth L. Eisenstein, The Printing Press as an Agent of Change (Cambridge University, 1980).
26. ^ Bruckner, D. J. R. (November 20, 1995). "How the Earlier Media Achieved Critical Mass: Printing Printing;Yelling 'Cease the Presses!' Didn't Happen Overnight". The New York Times . Retrieved August xiii, 2020.
27. ^ Bowker Reports Traditional U.South. Book Production Apartment in 2009 Archived January 28, 2012, at the Wayback Car
28. ^ Kelting, M. Whitney (August 2, 2001). Singing to the Jinas: Jain Laywomen, Mandal Singing, and the Negotiations of Jain Devotion. Oxford University Printing. ISBN978-0-19-803211-3.
29. ^ Vermeer, Leslie (August 31, 2016). The Complete Canadian Volume Editor. Brush Pedagogy. ISBN978-1-55059-677-nine.
30. ^ Gary B. Shelly; Joy L. Starks (January 6, 2011). Microsoft Publisher 2010: Comprehensive. Cengage Learning. p. 559. ISBN978-one-133-17147-8.
31. ^ Rainie, Lee; Zickuhr, Kathryn; Purcell, Kristen; Madden, Mary; Brenner, Joanna (Apr 4, 2012). "The rise of e-reading". Pew Internet Libraries . Retrieved February ii, 2017.
32. ^ "What is an eastward-book". Archived from the original on July 22, 2012. Retrieved December 30, 2016.
33. ^ Edwin Mcdowell (Oct 30, 1989). "The Media Business; Publishers Worry After Fiction Sales Weaken". The New York Times . Retrieved January 25, 2008.
34. ^ Golder, Joseph (October 28, 2021). "Homo Finds Secret Passage Subconscious Behind Bookshelf in His 500-Year-Old Habitation'southward Library". Newsweek.com. Retrieved February 25, 2022.
35. ^ Dictionary of Proverbs By George Latimer Apperson (2006) – folio 279. https://books.google.co.uk/books?redir_esc=y&id=7PMZJqSR4sAC&q=hesk%27s#v=onepage
36. ^ Notes and Queries, Book s12-X, Issue 206, Page 233 – 25 March 1922 '"Pseudo Titles for "dummy books"'
37. ^ Miriam A. Drake, Encyclopedia of Library and Informatics (Marcel Dekker, 2003), "Public Libraries, History".
38. ^ Miriam A. Drake, Encyclopedia of Library, "Public Libraries, History".
39. ^ McCook, Kathleen de la Peña (2011), Introduction to Public Librarianship, 2nd ed., p. 23 New York, Neal-Schuman.
40. ^ Hoffman, Gretchen L. (August 5, 2019). Organizing Library Collections: Theory and Practice. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 167. ISBN978-one-5381-0852-9.
41. ^ Patkus, Beth (2003). "Assessing Preservation Needs, A Self-Survey Guide". Andover: Northeast Document Conservation Center.

General sources

• "Book", in International Encyclopedia of Information and Library Science ("IEILS"), Editors: John Feather, Paul Sturges, 2003, Routledge, ISBN ane-134-51321-6, 9781134513215

Further reading

• Tim Parks (Baronial 2017), "The Books Nosotros Don't Understand", The New York Review of Books

External links

• Information on Sometime Books, Smithsonian Libraries
• "Manuscripts, Books, and Maps: The Printing Press and a Irresolute Earth"

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Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book