Books started out as living things. Those living things were then cold-heartedly murdered, brutally mashed into a pulp (frequently involving a chemical mixture that would make a mad scientist cackle with glee), then pressed into fiberous substraights using machines that would make medieval instruments of torture look humane. The rest of the process is slightly less sadistic, but it still isn't the sort of thing that you'd show a sensitive child.

So I assure you that books are dead things, rather than non-living things.