Abstract
The failure of e-books to take over from the traditional print format, as was so confidently predicted would happen only a few years ago, highlights how there is more to reading than merely the content of what we see. In fact, like any other object, the experience of interacting with a book, especially an old or historic volume, offers the reader the potential for a multisensory encounter. One that involves not only what the book looks and feels like, both the weight of the volume and the feel of the pages, but also the distinctive smell. In fact, one might also want to consider the particular sound made by the pages as they are turned over. However, it is the smell of older, and seemingly more olfactorily-redolent, works that appears to be especially effective at triggering nostalgic associations amongst readers. It is therefore only by understanding the multisensory nature of handling books, as stressed by this review, that one can really hope to fully appreciate the enduring appeal of the traditional format in the modern digital era. Several recent exhibitions that have attempted to engage their visitors by means of exploring the multisensory appeal of historic books or manuscripts in their collections are briefly discussed. While the multisensory mental imagery that is typically evoked by reading is unlikely to differ much between the print and e-book formats, there is nevertheless still some evidence to suggest that physical books can occasionally convey information more effectively than their digital counterparts.
Highlights
The growing recognition of the importance of the multisensory, and the non-visual, attributes of old books has led a number of museums, libraries, and archives to put on exhibitions that try to engage more of the visitor’s senses (e.g., Bacci and Pavani, 2014; Classen, 2017; Classen and Howes, 2006; Levent and Pascual-Leone, 2014)
While the multisensory aspects of handling books mainly has to do with perception, the multisensory aspects of reading are concerned mostly with the rich mental imagery that is evoked by the written word
First-person reports clearly highlight the emotional, and very often nostalgic, associations that are triggered by the smell of, especially older, books
Summary
Given the ‘sensory turn’ that has been documented in so many fields of academic enquiry in recent years (e.g., Smith, 2007, 2015), it is natural to consider. According to Handley (2019): “Publishers of books in all formats made almost $26 billion in revenue last year in the U.S, with print making up $22.6 billion and e-books taking $2.04 billion, according to the Association of American Publishers’ annual report 2019. Those figures include trade and educational books, as well as fiction.” (see Note 1). The results of a 2017 survey commissioned by eBay revealed that just over half of the more than 2000 people questioned preferred physical over digital versions of books, CDs and records, and boxed video games (Bridge, 2017; see Sax, 2019). The participants in this particular study had to read for four hours straight with the light-emitting device turned up to its maximum brightness
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