The book is a perfect object for consumption. The book as an object has the ability of satisfying each of a person’s five senses, making it an object that is wholly consumable by people and that is useful beyond its capacity to hold and preserve text. Books may take a variety of different shapes and appearances, they are able to be presented in both physical and digital spaces in a number of varying forms, however, within this essay the form of the book which should be considered is that which is bound with a front and back cover with paper pages within. This work will primarily refer to Penguin Publishing Group ‘Classics’ paperback books as an example and definition of a book object. This specific selection of a Penguin book is to be able to utilize what to many be the most commonly known and recognized book form and shape. Since the Penguin Publishing Group is one of the most popular books publishers in the world, the form its books take can be used to exemplify what most people would consider a “book,” to be. Books are perfect objects for consumption. The text featured on and within books is not the only part of the object which is interacted with, the entirety of a book is consumed by each of a person’s five senses when they are within its presence. Readers may easily consume the book through sight, touch, hearing, taste, and olfaction which reflects how the medium of the book, its physical presence and tangibility is as impactful upon the reader as the actual text on its pages. The physicality and the ability of the object to be consumed matters, it creates and initiates the interaction between reader and book to result in the reading of the text within.
The consumption of the book is initiated by one setting their sights on it. The visual exterior aspects of the book are the first impression of the book upon the reader and the first features to be significantly consumed by a reader. The design of a book is not an aspect that is simply passed over by readers, it is a principal feature that a person will fully behold and sample before deciding whether or not to open the book object. The visual form of the book is carefully designed for this consideration and consumption so that it may convince the reader to open the book object. When placed on a shelf among other books a spine will be the first feature of a book to be displayed, it must be attractive and appetizing to the viewer. When designing the spines of its books, Penguin Random House designers focus on creating spines that will, “pop on the shelf,” make one think, “Ooh I want to see more of that,” and that will appeal to the desire of having, “a selection of nicely put together spines from a series.” (Penguin, 2021).
The current lettering and design of spines that is common among many publishing houses was influenced and established because of Penguin’s design. As Penguin Archivist Thomas Birkhead describes, when paperback books began to increase in popularity the company’s publishers started to “pay a little more attention,” to the design of the spines, and decided to letter them vertically instead of horizontally (Penguin 2021). Although the spine of the book is at times minimal and simple, it is vital, the spine, providing the title, author’s name, and publishing house is exact, perfectly created for quick consumption by the readers eyes to convince them to pick up the book in mere seconds. The spine is the introductory component of the book, the hors d’oeuvre being the first aspect of the book to be seen by the reader and ingested by the reader that has convinced them to pull the object from the self.
In a person’s hands the book is viewed by its cover, before being opened the front and back covers are viewed to be consulted and judged by the holder’s eyes, perfectly designed to appeal to them and to convince their opening of the object. The viewing of a book’s covers is part of its consumption, they present a feast for the eyes’ consideration. The covers of books are designed with extreme care and attention, being, as Penguin Random House Children art director Anna Billson describes, collaborative projects between, “editors and the marketing, sales and production teams.” whose goal is to “visually,” bring to life what readers look for on shelves (Penguin, 2021). Book covers are products for readers, they are lively portrayals of the book that are essential for the reader’s attraction and appetite toward any specific book, one of the first features analyzed and looked at. The design of a cover may at times go through as many as twenty meetings, a great amount of consideration and study is taken to produce a perfect cover (Penguin, 2021). Covers are made to be appealing and intriguing to the taste of their specific audience and targeted reader, their design is curated so that said person viewing them will be perfectly pleased and interested by what they have just visually consumed.
The object and shape of the book, which is perfect to hold and carry, is specially created for a tactile experience, to be enjoyably held, felt, and cradled by the reader for an intimate and satisfying interaction and inherent absorption. The covers of many books are matte, Penguin specifically, made their classics matte in 2007 under art director Jim Stoddart (Penguin 2025). By doing so they now produce softcovers which are matte, smooth, and flexible and provide a comfortable tactile interaction with the book.
A book’s ‘smoothness,’ while lacking in glossy ‘slipperiness’ creates a pleasant physical interaction of the book that further promotes its consumption and reading. Soft cover books like Penguin’s which tend to be sized in dimensions of each cover being “129mm in width and 198mm in height,” featuring a spine of “20mm,” which makes a layout size of “270mm wide by 198mm tall.” (Penguin, 2025). This size allows for the object to be comfortably held, its softcover being lightweight and flexible as well, for easy transportation, carrying, and even folding if need be, whatever the needs of the consumer be. The book can be used perfectly for a reader’s needs, one can interact with its covers comfortably and do what they wish to affect it. A reader may consume the book through touching it’s form and leaving an imprint upon it, whether and imprint be defined by the leaving of creases touches and finger pringts on it, leaving marks of usage, dog-ear bookmarks or annotations are evidence of easy and accessible consumption of the object.
The physical form of the book is enjoyed by readers, it is a comfortable object that is easily interacted with and consumed. Digital books, presented on computers, tablets, or cellphones present text and information just aas well as physicial books may yet the do not deliver the same comfortable and consumable experience that physical book objects do. The tactile experience of a physical book object presents a full connection with the form, it is not separated by a power button or a screen or a keyboard, it is constantly present and ready for readers ingestion. A book can be opened at any moment, ready to face the reader directly for connection and presentation, the tactile turn of a books cover and page is a continued interaction and consumption of the form throught a readers hands and nerves. Lyngsoe Systems, which creates systems for book sorting within libraries, describes this physical interaction with a book objects as, “a sensory connection that digital formats cannot replicate…a full-bodied act of discovery, offering a reprieve from the distractions of modern technology.” (Lyngsoe Systems). The physicality of the object is significant to the reader’s consumption of the book, however it also matters when considering the later consumption of the text contained within the form. A physical book allows for a greater absorbition of the material within the book as well, as presented by Dr. Naomi S. Baron of the American University in her journal article, “Reading in a Digital Age” (2017), studies find that reading from a screen and scrolling through text instead of from a “stationary text,” like a physical book, “reading comprehension declined.” (Baron, 16). A notable preference to physical books exists among book readers, those who read are more likely to “re-read print,” and engage more with a text if it is provided in physical form. Printed books are favored by readers, many engage in digital books merely because of cost, citing that, “if costs were the same, they would chose to read print rather than onscreen.” (Baron, 18). The physicality of the book matters for the consumption of both the form and content provided by the object. The preference that readers display towards the consumption of text from a physical book, one they can feel and hold, describes that the tactile experience provided to a book’s holder impacts their understanding of the book’s stored information. The books form affects the absorption of the text within, meaning that as the text is read and consumed, so easily and congruently are body and physical aspects of the book ingested as well.
A portion of a reader’s ingestion of the book is a result of their causing and listening to the books’ sounds. Books are quiet objects, they do not make sounds unless intentionally made to by their user, and the noises they make as a result of interaction are typically only loud enough for the user to hear. These quiet noises made because of and for the reader of the book create a delicate consumption of the object, a special one that is not intervened or intruded on by any other person. A book faces toward its reader, creating a close connection between object and person, as a person reads their eyes scan the text, in a Penguin Classics book this text is small and fills thirty eight rows on a full page.
The placement and presentation of the text blocks on the page, regardless of their content, engross the reader within the book, causing them to be physically close to the book, fully focused with it. The specific lettering and text placement create a quiet reading of the book, its small font not meant to be read aloud or shown, perfectly provided for the full, undistracted, consumption of the book by one reader. However, thought meant to be read in quiet spaces as quiet activities books still produce sounds which are gentle, soft, and satisfying which readers may even seek to create and consume. The sounds that are made by the turning of the page of the placing of a book, or the scratching of annotations are purposely created by some readers and sought out for enjoyment specifically of the book’s medium. Creators of ASMR (autonomous sensory meridian response) content at times uses books as their medium for sound creation. A simple search on video sharing site, YouTube, provides insight into the desire to consume book sounds.
(Above: 125,709 views for Book ASMR from one YouTube Chanel | Below: 8,553,700 views for Book ASMR from just ten short form videos)
The sound made by books, the turning of it’s pages and the tapping of it’s covers result in millions of views for book sound content, content which does not focus on the reading of the book but only on the auditory interaction with it’s materiality. The sound of books, the sound produced by their usage is consumable, it has even become consumable content which readers might seek out and appreciate. Even when sound is absent from the reading experience that silence is a product of the book and one of it’s consumable aspects as well which appeal to the sense of the book holder and promote the objects usage and appreciation.
To taste an of object a person places it on their tongue to learn its flavor and to begin the consumption of the thing. But typically books are not tasted, not eaten or chewed, they are devoured differently than food. Books are not featured in menus or dinner plates but within a readers specific interaction with them there is at times a literal consumption of the book object. When reading a person may lick their finger to turn a page that is stuck to another. Using the temporary adhesive of their saliva to continue flipping through a book is a form of consuming the book object. As the person returns to their finger to their mouth to lick again they taste the residual flavor of the paper that may be left on their finger and then return their saliva to the page, placing a by-product of their digestion within the book. Saliva is created within the mouth to beginning the digestion of food. As explained by the dental care organization, Palatine Dental Associates, in their article “The Benefits of Saliva,” (2024), “Saliva plays a key role in the digestive process. It contains enzymes…which begin the breakdown of carbohydrates and fats in the mouth.” Hence, as a finger is brought back past a person lips after touching a page the taste of the page is introduced to the saliva and actually ingest by the body. This practice of flipping pages is not harmful to the reader, so within the mouth the beginning of the digestive process treats this interaction with the book exactly like food. In this sense the book is consumed by the reader by having its pages sampled at every other turn. The book object can be perfectly and harmlessly ingested even in this absentminded way, simply and out of the readers own habit for.
The last sense to which the books consumability appeals to is olfaction. The ability to smell the book is a direct, literal, and an easy consumption of it that can take place by simply being in the object’s presence. Books produce smells which are composed by a variety of their materials which make up their form. The scent of the page, ink, adhesive and cover material of the book all attribute to its scent which is absorbed by a person inhalation. As studied by the National Institute of Health, within an aritcle which describes, “How the nose decodes complex odors,” (2020), the process of smelling an object like the book involves scent coming into the body as “tiny molecules,” which, “stimulate specialized nerve cells, called olfactory sensory neurons, high inside the nose.” The processes of olfaction allows the scent of the book to be quickly analyzed and recognized by brain and therefore to a degree consumed by the body. Within his 2013 article for the Smithsonian Magazine, science writer Colin Shultz describes that the smell produced is caused as, “the chemical compounds used—the glue, the paper, the ink–begin to break down.” which release “volatile compounds,” that feature a “hint of vanilla, [since] Lignin, which is present in all wood-based paper, is closely related to vanillin.” The book object is created with wood-based paper which smells pleasant, the presence of this smell is evidence for the perfect design as an object that can be consumed. One can consume a part of the book simply by taking a whiff of it, of its good scent. This scent of the book is not subconsciously received, it is an active part of the book reading and consmeing experience, so much so that it has even been capatlized on separate from the book object. The smell of a book is ingested by every reader, and even sought out by some to be constantly duped when away from books. A desire for the scent of books, and therefore a desire for the consumption of books is obvious through the commercialization and capitalization of the smell of books into aroma objects like candles, scents, and fragrances.Entire websites exist dedicated to the sale of books scented objects. Sites like, Smells Like Books, feature signature products of book scented colognes and lotions for, “book lovers who want to carry a little piece of fiction with them – wherever they go.” and Frostbeard Studios who sell book scented candles which are indented to smell like specific books or even an Oxford Library. A search on online retailer Amazon’s website for “book scent,” even brings up over 2,000 search results of items that smell like books. The scent of books is ingested with every instance that the book is held and opened. The smell so satisfying that there is a market for it’s purchase, the smell of the object is a perfect way to consume the book, even when not actively reading from it one will be reminded of its form and then its content.
Book are perfect objects that can be fully consumed by a person. A book can fulfill each of a persons five sense allowing for a full absorption of the book object. Not only is the text featured within a book important to the reader, but the book’s medium, an entirely consumable bound codex, is relevant and impactful upon them as well. The book is able to be consumed by appealing to a persons visual, auditory, tactile, gustatory and olfactory senses, this ability of the physical object to be consumed increases it’s success as an information storage device, it makes readers more likely to engage with the books form and want to access the information within it. The opportunity of a book object to be consumed by a person creates greater opportunity for someone who is attracted by the form of the book to then choose to enter into the literary world.
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