"Christianity was the prototypical religion of the Book..."

Er, that would be Judaism.

If you read Misquoting Jesus by Bart Ehrman, makes the case that writing and copying were much more central to early Christianity than other religions of the time, including the Jewish tradition out of which it sprung. Certainly study and interpretation of the Talmud is a strong and significant aspect of Judaism, but Ehrman argues that there is a qualitative difference in the approach of Christianity to "The Word".