This is not a trivial question. There are so many forms in which words on paper can be packaged. Why are some books, and others not?

If someone tells you, “I’ve written a 508-page manual!” you may be impressed. But if someone says, “I’ve written a book!” you are even more impressed — even if the book is only 64 pages long, and double-spaced. Why? Obviously it’s not number of pages, thickness, or density that are the criteria.

I don’t know the answer to this question. I want to speculate, and hear your speculations.

My speculation:  “I wrote a book” means “I had an idea, developed it inside of me, then put words to it. I packaged it in the form of a book, and it’s reasonable for you to expect it to have a beginning, a middle, and an end. I present it to the world — standing, in a way, naked in public.”

We might read the book and not like it. Or not understand it. But the fact that someone wrote it, someone thought about it and put the words together and published it, is undeniable. It changes the way we view the author.

What do you think?

Filed under: book love

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