A book, also known as a manuscript, is a written medium for recording data in the form of text or illustrations, usually written of at least ten pages protected by a hard cover and bound together. The technical term for such a physical arrangement is bookcase. Traditionally, books were used as reference materials or references for research purposes; however, with the development of the modern society, books are now used as an entertainment medium as well. Many books can be found in public libraries and bookstores.
Usually, a book consists of at least 20 printed pages. The pages are normally stapled together in a bound with some type of tape or plastic. Most first edition novels were published in a single book by a single printer. As time goes by, different printers began to create individual books containing more or less content from the same novel, making them single-volume publications. This is because printing costs were lower during this time and so mass production could be afforded. However, due to copyright issues, not all single-volume publications are allowed to be sold as well.
A book may also contain one or more photographs. Photographs are placed within the binding of a book so they do not lose their clarity when the book is closed. For example, if an author wants to include a photograph in his/her novel, a professional printing house must be contacted so that the photographer can be guaranteed to have his/her photos printed on the pages of the book and the pages will then be bound together into a closed book. Similarly, most fictional works are printed on hard cover photo paper, which cannot be used to bind together other works of art.
A book may also consist of prose, i.e. short stories and novels. Most people refer to such novels as ‘hard’ novels or ‘graphic novels’, while references to ‘written work’ (a collection of words) are generally used to describe novels. In terms of content, a novel is any written work, regardless of how many people read it (or how many times it has been read by others).
However, some genres of written work may be divided into more than one ‘book’. For example, an entire novel may be composed of essays, poems, song lyrics and other non-fiction pieces. Similarly, a novel can also be divided into literary works (which include lyric literature and plays) and non-fiction work (which include histories, biographies, etc.). A musical work (a musical play or music album) would fall into the category of non-fiction. A song lyrics book would also be a non-fiction book. A history book, on the other hand, would be considered a literary work.
Finally, another term commonly used to describe a book (and which is also used to describe books in general) is ‘encyclopedia’. This term was once used in conjunction with dictionaries, but today the two words are often used interchangeably. An encyclopedia is simply a collection of information. Just as there are dictionaries that provide definitions of words and facts, there are dictionaries that provide information about everything from food labels to 48 laws.