Can I place books as a block?

There is no vanilla way to place books in the world (except in a chest as MBraedley says).

Bibliocraft however has various ways of storing books in the world, the best looking way for a single book would probably be something like the desk:

The desk will keep one book open (it can store up to 9 at a time in the latest version of Bibiliocraft) and right clicking on that book (if it is a book and quill or a written book) will allow you to read from the book directly. It will also store the page you were reading from when you exit the book.

You can place an item frame, then place the book inside it. This will allow players to come up and see the book in the frame, then click it to take it into their inventory and read it.

Note that as of the latest snapshots, clicking an item frame once will give the item, and clicking an empty item frame will remove it from the wall. This lets you keep the item frame in place when the book is removed.