Book

A book was a tool to store information.

"Grand adventures are tales full of wonder, daring, and peril. They all began as slapdash accounts of some folk having horrible time, long ago and far away, and found a little lace and glimmer along the way. Thus do sages solemnly record all "history." Whatever gods smile upon you grant that storytellers favor your tale, so that it displays you brightly, and twists you not so much that your very name and face are lost."

- Arasper's Little Book by Arasper Ardanneth, the Sage of the Road

Description
A book consisted of a collection of pages that were glued or bound together. The pages usually were not made of paper made from wood, but from some kind of parchment made of sheep, goat, or calf skin. The reason for this was that Toril did not have the necessary technology to mass-produce paper, it was―if at all―only produced alchemically. Pages in spellbooks and other valuable books were made of vellum. However, paper made of linen, bone, ivory, or metal foil were also known to be used for the pages of a spellbook, owing to the greater durability of these materials.

Binding a book was done by hand. While it was not common, the pages could receive additional protection through a wooden cover that was in turn covered by leather while the pages were stitched to a leather sheet. Other cover materials used for spellbooks were thin wood, soft or hard metal, or dragonhide.

Books containing poetry, historic texts, and lore, as well as gnomish technical diagrams, were commonly carried by adventurers.

Bookstores

 * Book Wyrm's Treasure: Located in Trollskull Alley in the North Ward of Waterdeep and owned by Rishaal. The shop sold all sorts of books and had a collection of spellbooks from which customers could copy spells.
 * Serpent Books & Folios: a bookstore in Waterdeep owned by Jannaxil Serpentil.

Libraries

 * Candlekeep: The largest library in the Realms. It also sold copies of tomes of non-magical lore and spellbooks.
 * Library of Tarchamus: the hidden mountain library in ancient Netheril that housed over 100,000 volumes.
 * Sorceller's Encapsulate: The guildhall and the library on both, arcane and mundane knowledge in Daggerford.

Publishers

 * Tym Waterdeep Limited: A large publishing company located in Waterdeep. It was the publisher of all books and chapbooks written by Volothamp Geddarm.

Reputation
A book was a luxury item. They were written by hand as printing technology was a secret held by the Lantanese. There existed only about a dozen copies of each book.

Books were, despite being a luxury item, only lightly guarded when transported by traders. The reason for this was that books were not very attractive for tribal creatures and monsters, who often attacked such caravans. That said, a danger was posed by rival merchants who hired mercenaries to sabotage the trading endeavors of their rivals.

Notable Owners
As mentioned above, books were a luxury item. As a general rule, only nobles or temples owned them.