Though it might seem like a strange question, it’s not.  Why have books turned out the way that they have, materially?  Why have they taken the form that they have today, and how might we see that form change in the future? 

-It’s in part the nature of paper itself.  Because we write on paper, folios were needed (covers).  To carry a large stack of papers around, we needed to a) fold them in half (made pages), and b) cover them with some form of water-resistant binding, both to hold them together and to protect them from damage.

It’s sort of a wild guess.  I need to read my sources and find out exactly why a book is a book.  This doesn’t even get into why a page looks as it does, with grots and white space.  Why left to right?  I suppose, as it has in other cultures, the reading pattern follows the writing pattern.  This is why some works are written to be read up to down.  I think I heard via PBS Documentary on Japan that the Japanese thought it proper to read top to bottom, because it corresponded naturally with the human body, head to toe.  Left to right must have seemed horrifically unbalanced and barbaric.  What does Left to Right say? Hand to hand?  This skips the mind, the face, a respectful addressing of the head, and is reminiscent of tossing a ball back and forth playfully.

This is merely babbling: I’m off to read something solid to begin to ground these fanciful, flyaway musings.