For me, books are a tactile experience and designing them is a craft. You can feel them and smell them. They're portable, they don't run out of battery or require a wifi or firmware updates. They're rugged, you can chuck one in your bag or stuff it in a pocket without much worry. They're also a fantastic way of storing a huge amount of information in a small space.
They're not subject to the same censorship laws that visual media is, meaning they can get away with a lot more in terms of content and subject mater than a film can. Look at a film like 'Lolita' for example, which tells the story of a grown man who falls in love with a 14 yr old girl. In the original novel the girl is only 12.
Similarly in A Clockwork Orange, the protagonist in the film is an adult and seduces two women and takes them back home for some of the old 'in-out, in-out'. In the original novel, he's 15 and the girls I believe are pre-pubescent (and it's suggested it's not entirely consensual if I recall).
They're also collectible. Many gamers have dozens if not hundreds of digital copies of videogames, but a large portion still like to collect the physical copies. Why? Perhaps it's because they enjoy owning a physical thing as part of a bigger collection. The Japanese have a word for piling up books to be read later (or never) - Tsundoku.
A browse at someone's bookshelf can give you an indication of who they are as a person, and what subjects the take an interest in.
Books are a great way to enjoy design, both in terms of the colour and the layouts inside, but also the actual design and craft behind the physical book –
http://thebookdesignblog.com/book-design-inspiration/collectors-edition-artist-cover-bomb
It's also a good way to try different approaches to something that we think we know inside out –
http://thebookdesignblog.com/magazine-design-inspiration/lab-periodical
If you can track down the '
Paperback Writer' episode of the BBC series 'The Beauty of Books', there's a talking head section with a gent who compares the experience of reading a book with reading on a Kindle or iPad. I used to have it uploaded to YouTube but it was removed.
I'm a third year Graphic Design student and I am writing a dissertation on the allure of the book. I was wondering if anyone had any relevant information or could pass me on details to research and find information regarding the allure of the book. Why is it still held in such regard with designers? Why don't we read books as much as we look at our phones? What can you do with a book that you can't do with a screen? Why do designers love books so much? Why do consumers love books?