Week 1 Study Guide Questions

Today I worked through all of the outside class work. I found it to be a little draining but none the less rewarding. I found the note taking to be a little bit drab but got through it making a thorough effort even though it’s not my cup of tea. I learnt about new ways to define a book through the readings that were posted up on the Art and Books Website, and I found these to be both very informing and quite interesting especially the article written by Phillip Smith.

Due to these articles I was able to change my own definition in order to suit all types of books. Also when reading the article by Phillip Smith I came across a new word that I found to be extremely interesting, ‘Bookness’. I find this word to be quite good for categorizing what a book actually is because it is a rather universal word that describes the aspects that make up a book rather than the contents that make up a book in order to define it.

When reading Edward Hutchin’s article I came across a quote that I really liked as well, and that I thought summed up the topic of “What is a book?” quite well. “Some people say that a scroll is a scroll and a book is a codex. I think it is more accurate to say that a scroll is a scroll, a codex is a codex and they both have a lot of bookness to them”

My new definition is as follows and I feel very satisfied by what I have come up with. “A book is an object that has the form and/or function of a book. For example a group of leaves with writing on them bound together by a piece of strong to form a connection. This has the form AND the function of a book. It has qualities of bookness.”

I feel like a accomplished something today and I am extremely glad that I followed up and did more research of the idea of what a book actually is.