Reimagining what a book is now in 2023.

Article Note:

I wrote this as one of my earliest blogs on this site. In the time since publishing it my thoughts have shifted quite radically. You can read about my latest ideas in 2024 here or follow the Book Design Category as I add to it over time. This project is experimental by nature so I will keep my old ideas right next to the latest findings. The journey is what makes it interesting!

Original Article:

I hesitated on whether to call this project a book. If someone wanted to be particularly strict they could say that the six chapters which each comes out to approximately four pages is far too concise to count. Maybe the right term should be a “book in process.” That way if it expands to nine, ten or eleven chapters it may justify that title.

I bought a book that originally came out as a mere PDF file consisting of 54 pages. About a third of it was just white space without any text. When the second edition came out in 2013 it surpassed the 100 page mark. If there was another edition the Q&A part at the end and the events that happened in the last decade could push the page count up to 130-150. The PDF file that was stretching the definition of a book could then easily justify its namesake.

One possibility is that the page count will not expand dramatically but the shorter pages will keep getting longer. I have an overview of the entire site that gives me a quick idea of how much content is there in total. If I see the chapters are all getting as longer then that might be what pushes the media title from website to “internet book” or some similar phrase.