This documentary highlights the special characteristics of books, compared to the ‘robotic, soullessness’ of digital reading devices like the Kindle, Nook, iPad, etc. To make the personality and significant presence of books stand out, books of different sizes and shapes and weights and colors are shown in collections and stacks and on shelves– with reference to their unique smells (from their physical and mental travels) and to historic feels (from the physical paper with creases and wrinkles and folds, to the cultural feeling of community). The creators attempt to really capture the importance of physical books, especially with their interview inserts with writers and bookstore owners and book readers.

Although books are incredible experiences for many older generations and/or true “book lovers”, because the digital age has only recently begun to transform the “normal” way of reading, I believe that in a few decades, electronic reading will become the “new normal”. For example, the documentary opened up with a typewriter being used, but in a way, this once “normal” machine, now gives way to faster printing presses and Microsoft Word. In other words, this “normal” thing is not considered so normal anymore and the majority of people probably do not think about the ‘horrific’ death of the typewriter. We can apply this same understanding to why society will continue to transform and grow into a truly electronic reading community–because it is becoming the new “normal”. Furthermore, in a few hundred years, another new way of reading may be introduced, and it will probably feel confusing and disappointing to today’s or tomorrow’s “e-reader lovers”. You never know.