Discussion about books and e-books

Today I've started a discussion with four people who study media about books.

First I asked them what they thought what a book was, according to them a book was the following:
- a way to travel through time
- a book has a fixed beginning and end
- a book always has a cover, also digitally (one part where you don't put information in except for title, publisher, illustrator and writer)
- a book is a good tool to fix a wobbly chair
- a book has a certain order information is told and this is determined by the creator

Then I asked them how a book is different from an animationfilm, because a lot of descriptions they gave fit other media as well.
- a book is stationary
- a book is physical, you can feel and smell it
- a book is pile-up of a lot of ideas
- a book leaves a lot for own interpretation, you can use your own imagination to picture a story
- a book is a document
- a book is divided into chapters, and every chapter has a beginning and an end


So then I asked them if an E-book is a book as well. The opinions about this were divided;
- Meaby, An E-book is derived from a book
- No, you can't hold and touch an E-book
- No, an E-book misses clarity, you can't flip through pages easely
- Yes, an E-book is a metaphor of a book
- No, you call it an E-book because it's not a book, E-mail is not mail either.

Then the discussion really started, people came with a lot of ideas:
- Choose your own adventure books (analogue interactive story)
- A big page of text is not a book, it's a story.
- So pages and chapters make a book.
- An interactive book should have elements of an analogue book
- Or you should leave it (the naming of what you're making) open and create a new media.
- The added value of a book is that it's tangible
- You can collect books
- We like to collect because that way we create a picture of ourselves, an identity
- Symbolic value that can't be simulated digitally, because digital = easy to reproduce
- A book can feel a certain way (size, paper, cover, etc.)
- People really sit down and take the time to read a book (rest), on the computer or Ipad their attention span is much shorter (active).
- For a game you can also really sit down and play for hours. - so you settle yourself to get in a gaming or reading mood
- A book askes for attention and a passive mood.
- Fewer and fewer elements in our life are done physically.
- In both a book as a game you can determine your own tempo
- Maybe you could work in layers, with immersion. The tempo of the story (or other elements) adapt to your tempo.