it also could mean "a magazine " in 20c., a telephone directory. Later also "bound pages," whether written on or not. The sense gradually narrowed by early Middle English to "a written work covering many pages fastened together and bound," also "a literary composition" in any form, of however many volumes. And compare French livre "book," from Latin librum, originally "the inner bark of trees" (see library).
Latin and Sanskrit also have words for "writing" that are based on tree names ("birch" and "ash," respectively). Middle English bok, from Old English boc "book, writing, written document," generally referred (despite phonetic difficulties) to Proto-Germanic *bōk(ō)-, from *bokiz "beech" (source also of German Buch "book" Buche "beech " see beech), the notion being of beechwood tablets on which runes were inscribed but it may be from the tree itself (people still carve initials in them).
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