书 shū book; write
Made up of [丨 gǔn line radical 2]A measure word to use for this noun: 本 běn
Alternative traditional form of character: 書
Made with 4 strokes.
Originally a pen over a mouth so a pen that speaks, now much simplified
Ancient small seal form 
Related characters
Also uses 丨 gǔn component: 夫 fū (husband) 旧 jiù (old) ; 铺 pù (store) ; 未 wèi (not yet) ; 行 xíng (permitted) ; 攸 yōu (distant) ; 直 zhí (straight) ; 中 zhōng (centre)
Sounds same
殳 shū (spear)Different tone
暑 shǔ (heat) ; 署 shǔ (office) ; 树 shù (tree) ; 术 shù (method)Pronunciation
Sound file kindly provided by shtooka.net ➚ under a Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike License
Proverbs
读万卷书不如行万里路 dú wàn juǎn shū bù rú xíng wàn lǐ lù Learn from practical experience not from books郢书燕说 yǐng shū yān shuō The message has been misunderstood. The story is that someone living in Ying in the Chu kingdom dictated a letter to a friend, the Prime Minister of Yan kingdom. Inadvertently the secretary wrote down 'Raise the lantern' thinking it was part of the letter. The recipient interpreted this to mean he should appoint praiseworthy people to the government. So in this case the misunderstanding gave rise to benefit.
罄竹难书 qìng zhú nán shū So evil that there is not enough paper to record all the misdemeanors. Records used to be made on bamboo strips before paper was invented.