Feeling Bookish: A New Materialist Analysis of the Book Object in the Digital Era

Worshipped. Ridiculed. Recycled. Books today are subject to all of these treatments. Books are used as home décor, mousepads, bill folders, and sculptures. The book’s form is mimicked by mugs, deck chairs, socks, phone-covers and vases. Books are also pulped and anonymously converted into other, non-book related products. It is no coincidence that such transformations and transmutations abound today, nor that these bookish forms are shared, promoted or decried. Feeling Bookish considers how important embodiment is to the concept of the book, the nature of relationships between people and books, and the status of the book today.