A bridge links one place to another; in the process of the reader, the writer and the book, the book connects the physical presence of the reader with an abstract world. The book acts as a mediator between the writer and the reader enabling them to communicate. The book is the physical structure that brings together the reader and the writer; outside the confines of the book, it is communication that binds them. This communication between the two implies a space between them which can never be filled.
After the reader embarks upon its journey, then comes the realisation that no one reader will travel along the same line; the text has an unlimited potential of destinations which is laid open to the reader. The text is interpreted by the reader but there is also an act of translation taking place: turning the written word into thoughts of the reader. These written words originated from the thoughts of the writer, does then writing have no effect on ‘either the structure or the contents of the meaning’1 or is it that what the reader sees is a finished piece and therefore it is only ever read as a whole?