“That need long ago to sew the pages together” reminds me of an interesting discussion around the Biblical canon. When the technology of sacred writings progressed(?) from a collection of scrolls to a bound byblos, the collection become a lot less fluid (or less open, to tie into this OEG theme). A defined canon starts to take on the appearance of uniformly authoritative works when the pages are sewn together into a book. It is no longer as simple as “these are the scrolls in our basket, and your basket has mostly the same ones,” but it becomes “Who has the right Bible?”
Today, digital online Bibles are making the different collections (and canonically ambiguous works) visible and accessible again to those who might not ever purchase an Orthodox or Coptic Bible. New “book” formats have not opened the official canon(s), but they are certainly opening minds to consider more authors than were available when “book” was only a physical assembly of print pages.
The idea that a book is characterized by editing and rewriting gets really interesting in this context - and produces more fireworks than New Year’s Eve.
“What is a ‘Book?’” is a great conversation starter - can go into so many directions for those of us who like to hear ourselves talk.