The purpose of a book is to be read by the eyes or by fingertips and in some cases by hearing to gather information that has been recorded or printed onto a piece for the transferring of information to the brain for processing.

Books may also refer to a literary work, or a main division of such a work. In library and information sciences, a book is called a monographs, to distinguish it from serial periodicals such as magazines, journals and newspapers.

In novels, a book may be divided into several large sections, also called books (Book 1, Book 2, Book 3, etc).

A lover of books is usually referred to a bibliophile, a bibliophilist, or a philobiblist, or, more informally, a bookworm.