Books - An Amazing Source of Knowledge

A good book is always regarded as the best friend of man. Usually a collection of handwritten, printed or empty sheets are called books. These may be made of paper, parchment, or any other material and bound together at sides. Each book has number of single sheets and these sheets are called pages. Now-a-days, electronic version of a book is available online and this is called an e-book. Books are a major source of knowledge and information. A book may be a work of literature, a novel, a periodical or a journal. A collector of books is called bibliomaniac while a book lover is called a bookworm. A book can be bought at a book store or borrowed from libraries and book lenders. When the writing system was discovered by our ancestors, they used any surface to practice their newly acquired writing skills. But the writing system was not well established and the writings were found to be written in any direction. Then Egyptians invented papyrus by weaving the reeds of the papyrus plant and used it to make scrolls. With time and with the invention of paper, paper books came into being. Initially the books were handwritten. But with the invention of printing press by Gutenberg, printed books came into being. Usually the book has a set structure and this is common to all books. A book has a front cover and a rear cover which may be hard bound or soft bound. The regularly found leaves at the front of the page are frontend paper, flyleaf and front matter. Front matter has a title page, copyright page, table of contents, list of illustrations, dedication, foreword and preface. Some books also have an introduction section. Following the main body of the book, the back part has appendix, glossary, index and notes. Usually bibliography and colophon are found at the rear section of the book. The different types of books are commonly classified according to the content of the book. The most common categorization is fiction and non fiction. Fiction books are mostly compilation of fictitious short stories or a novel. Non fictional books are usually reference books and usually don't tell a story. They rather express a set of facts. A non fictional book may be an almanac, an encyclopedia, a dictionary, a handbook, a reference book or an atlas. This may also include an instruction manual, cook books and other self improvement books. All the text books of academic purpose fall under this category. There are also several other types of books, which cannot be classified under either fiction or non fiction. These books can be a photo album, a stamp book or a prayer book with a collection of musical hymns. The other type of classification of books is the Hardcover and Paperback books. While hardbacks have stiffer binding and spine, paperbacks have flexible soft covers. The latter type is cheaper than the hardback books. A book is an ideal companion during a journey or for bed time reading. Many people are ardent readers and prefer collecting books.