Hi Susan, I suggest that we consider books as artifacts as real, touchable, holdable, in short sensible. The characters in the book are represented for us on paper and ink both real things. If you and I read “Sense and Sensibility”, we read the same story that we could share if we choose.

The story may be made up by the author but it is a real story. I suggest that we humans can attach our vast emotionality to almost anything real. Books are real. Stories are real stories.