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Peter Stoicheff, "Materials and Meanings"

By the early twentieth century, the book [...] was a device that gave permanence to human expression; it could contain many kinds of information, from the novelistic to the encyclopedic; its physical structure provided easy access to that information; its quality of inks and paper and bindings made it readable; its size and weight made it comfortable to hold and portable; and its efficiencies of production and the availability of its raw materials made it affordable.

[...]

The evolution of the book prior to the advent of digital technology witnessed a symbiotic relationship between the contents of the codex and its technologies; human demand for written communication required technological responses that produced the book, and technological improvements to the book and its manufacturing processes opened the book to new audiences, genres and purposes. Digital technology has released the text from the book’s physical structure, altering the conditions within which the book, in the form of electronic text, can be experienced. Electronic texts take the feature of portability to a new realm, reduce the reliance on the commodity of paper, offer easier access to the text itself via instant downloading capability, and provide more efficient dynamics of searchability, taking readers to the furthest remove yet from the time when, to access information, humans travelled to where it was inscribed, immoveable, in stone. The real revolution inspired by digital communication technology – computers and android devices that upload and download text and visual information accessed from everywhere – has transformed almost all communications media. We still, as of the time of writing, live within a period of technological overlap, during which one medium of communication coexists with its potential successor. Many years into the digital universe now, however, the physical book does seem to maintain a relatively stable position in the human imagination – a testament to its bestowal of permanence on a text, and its accessibility and readability and affordability.