I recently got asked the question, “what is a book?” Most people
would answer something obvious like, “something you read” or “paper with words
written in it that make a story”. But if you actually think about it, what is a
book?
A book is defined as a handwritten or printed work of
fiction or nonfiction, usually on sheets of paper fastened or bound together
within covers, which is what most people would think a book to be. But now our
books are made from technology. Sure you can’t flip through and touch the
smooth edges of the freshly printed pages or you can’t smell the paper, either
of slight mildew or fresh ink but it’s still the same book just on your phone
or tablet or kindle. It still has the same words and makes you feel the same
way about the characters and the plot. It’s still the same thing, written by
the same person. It’s the same story just in the traditional form of a book.
You have to think of a book as an idea, not an object. I
could take Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s
Stone and write it on the side of the building and it would still be the
exact same thing. It would still be the same story.
Some people will say that there is a difference between a
story and a book. I agree. The book is
the actual physical item that you can hold and buy and flip through freely. But
the story is what’s inside the book. If I were to write Harry Potter up on the side of a building it technically wouldn't be
a book anymore. Instead, it would be the marvelous story written by J.K.
Rowling just not in the physical form of a book.
Think of a book as a person. When the person dies, they are
no longer physically here with us. But their spirit and memories live on
forever. Those memories are the stories that the person got to tell while they
lived. Even though after they pass they’re not here physically, they’re still
here in memory, like a story.
