The Book

I’ve never known anything better than a good book. Not just in terms of content-that itself is a labor of love, words put to paper by intelligent, creative, inquisitive, or determined mines. But the books themselves are a thing of beauty. Pages gently sewn together, and bound with exquisite leathers, embossed with golden foils, and with the warm, rich smell of parchment.   To stand in a library or a bookstore is to stand in the gates of Paradise.

— ~A book lover.

  No technology has ever been taken more for granted than the book, save for perhaps indoor plumbing and the ability to slice a piece of bread without it squishing into a pathetic lump. The sheer ability to taken the spoken word and commit it to a physical form itself is a marvel, even in the days where making paper was a long and arduous process, with no purpose but to record that which Memory failed to save. Scrolls were the common format, but these were subject to rapid decay, due to the materials used.   It was not until the Jade era that the technology to create the Book was first developed. Nothing more than a few sheets of papyrus stitched together with twine when suitable bindings for a scroll could not be found, this new format soon gained popularity for its slimmer profile, lighter weight, and ease of carrying and putting on a shelf. Vellum and Parchment soon followed, the technology to create the Book rapidly developing, though stymied by its cost and the time it took to write-that part, as of yet, had not been enhanced by technological innovations.   Though Books rapidly became the de facto form for written knowledge, due to their ability to hold more information and fit more cleanly on a shelf, they did not become the massive success they were until the printing press was developed in the middle of the Marble era. Books, until this point, still had to be painstakingly written and transcribed by hand. A solid, illuminated manuscript of the Bible could take up to three years for a Monk to make by hand, and were often chained to the pulpit to keep them from being stolen. The Printing press allowed for manuscripts, flyers, phamplets, and other documents to be printed with unprecedented speed, in greater volume, and distributed more widely. Historians often attribute the printing press with the wide success of the ‘Reclamation era’ of Church history.   Today it is not uncommon to see bookstores and libraries dotted across any city. The wealthy keep private repositories of old books, and bookstores are filled with anything from teacher’s guides to penny novels. The book has become all but synonymous with knowledge; and the prevention of its loss or degradation.