What is a book, and does it matter?

Lorcan Dempsey of OCLC research, is involved in among lots of things, statistical analyses of media use. In that work he and his colleagues are forced to make som operational definitions of the 'book'. Definitions that inspired Lorcan to make some interesting reflections on books.

I once had a chat with a book historian. Her view is was that a book is defined by its binding. The binding is the most important part of a book. Without it, it's just a pile of paper.

My answer was as follows: Assume that an author is writing a book. While working on it there is a mansuscript -- which is a computer file. After a year or so, the book is completed and is accepted for publication.

In my view it is now a book. After all the book has been accepted for publication. When you send it to the printers workshop, then I suppose it is manuscript. On the other hand, when you download the thing from amazon.com to your kindle, then it's a book.