Paper shall thrive

The emotion of books

The five senses

Paper books are something special; there is something about them that cannot be imitated by anything else. Sure you might think it's all about the content of the book but don't be misjudged by this common misconception. When you pick up a book it communicates to you through all your senses. There is the size and weight of the book; a small and light book might tell you it is just a flimsy story while a heavy large book might tell you it contains an epic story. Then when you open it up there is touch; you can feel the pleasant texture of the paper and can sense the slight breeze blowing at you when you flip through the pages. With that also come the smell and hearing: you can hear the pages flip, causing a unique sound based on the paper used and the size of the book. The smell is very powerful too; especially new books carry this undeniable pleasant odor of new paper. And finally when you start reading not just the text, but also the layout communicates its content to you, this can be on a single page bases, but some book will use a combination of two pages to bring you a powerful message.

Aforementioned senses are very characteristic and unique to paper books and people will not likely stray away from the feeling that a book gives them. EBooks are only able to provide the content of a book and are missing the texture and smell of paper, the size and weight of a book, the sound a page made when it is flipped and the layout that speaks to the reader. Without these elements consumers will no be given the full experience a paper book provides when reading an eBook and the paper book will remain to be the object of choice.