book

book
1. The totality of the purchases and sales that make up the position of a trader on financial markets. The terms long book, short book, and open book are used synonymously with long position, short position, and open position.

2. To record an item in the accounts, usually a sale.

3. Short for book value.

book Primarily a bound volume of printed pages, it may also be a division within a book (as in the Bible) or a statement of accounts. The earliest books were Egyptian writings on papyrus, of which the Book of the Dead is often considered the first. Roman books were mostly in the form of rolls, although the Roman period also saw the emergence of the codex, the forerunner of the paged book. In the Middle Ages, vellum, a fine parchment made from animal skin, became the standard material for books, but by the 15th century they were often written on paper. Modern printed books date to c.1454, when Gutenberg conceived of using moveable type (developed earlier in China and Korea) in conjunction with early forms of the printing press. The first printed book was a German Latin Bible (1455).

Book, spoken dialogue of a musical comedy or musical play. (The word libretto is sometimes used, but more commonly denotes the text of an opera.) The book and the lyrics of the songs are often by the same author, but composers such as Irving Berlin and Cole Porter wrote their own lyrics, as does Stephen Sondheim, while authors such as Guy Bolton were book rather than lyric writers. The rare feat of writing book, lyrics, and music was achieved by Ivor Novello and Noël Coward.