Post 2: What is a book?

To me, a book is a place. A place that takes you back in time, springs you forward, or simply keeps you grounded in reality. Whether it is bound with a spine, folded into a 3 dimensional shape, or read from the screen of a technological devise, it is a book. Regardless of its outward appearance, and book or unbook like qualities, it is the message inside that makes it a novel. To be a book it must have a collection of words that work together to form a story of sorts, or at least be a multitude of concise statements. Although my interpretation of what defines a book is loose, I’m not to say a bowl of alphabet soup should be classified as a book just because of its letters. But I am also not to say that a story read from a screen is not a book because it lacks the “look, feel and smell” as Nancy Jo Sales does, when it is still, very obviously, a book. Those who classify pieces as a book based off its physicality are confusing their personal reading preferences, with the question they are addressing. The question being what makes a book a book, it is illogical to argue that because a book is copied onto a screen it is no longer a book, when the place it takes you is the same. I agree with Victor LaValle’s statement that, “It’s not the book, but the idea of the book.” There is nothing “magical” about a book, but instead about the place it takes you. The message encompassed within a novel is more important than the form it comes in itself, which makes the discussion of tangible books vs. eBooks strictly on one of preference.  A book is like a time machine, so regardless of the form you are reading it in, allow yourself to travel to a new place.