Books, Books, and more books

This week let’s travel towards the philosophical and ask the question of what is a book? With the promise of e-readers, tablet computers, and other devices that can mediate our reading experience the death of the book has been proclaimed often.   I wonder what it is that is dying. 
 
So let’s ask what is a book? A book is a collection of ideas that is held together by a common narrative. It can be collection of poems, a lengthy description of the rescue of British troops during WW2 at Dunkirk, or it can be a story created by someone’s wondrous imagination.   I suggest we look at a book not as the bound paper that has held the printed word these last few centuries, but rather as the narrative itself that exists in our minds as we read and digest these works.
 
This is precedence for this view point in the later media creations. Movies for instance are movies regardless of the medium they exist on, the big screen, VHS, DVD, blu-ray, and so forth. We did not discuss the death of movies when DVD’s appeared.
 
However it appears that technology is destroying the concept of an album. MP3’s and individual song downloads have done much harm to this art form. In the case of music this is because each song is and can be treated as individual entities that can exist without the greater product. Books, though perhaps poetry and non-fiction can be chopped up and consumed in a similar fashion to songs, are not as music. The full narrative often has to be consumed to understand the overall plot, theory, emotions, or ideas presented.
 
Returning back to the beginning of this, the reason the book is being pronounced dying is simply because the medium has become synonymous with the content. As the medium of delivery has not changed for centuries the medium simply became synonymous with the content. We see the book as the bound and published items that fill the shelves of our libraries and homes. 
 
The book is not really dying; the method of transmission and creation is changing. The structure and methods will be altered; print materials some day in the future will become a niche market for the few that prefer to enjoy reading physical books. Someday it is conceivable that books will no longer be printed. In this connected environment books will likely become community driven works of art as the electronic environment will allow anyone to altered, add, and comment to the work in question.
 
The book is not dying, nor is it even close. The book is entering another phase of its long and illustrious life, one that will be exciting to see unfold.