This Is What the Death of the Book Looks Like

Consistent with my abiding obsession with The Guardian's culture blogs, I direct you to Peter Robins' recent post about the sense of retro-chic pervading current book design.

His conclusion about the death of the book is a bit hysterical. The book is a durable medium that's not going anywhere anytime soon. But it has ceded it's place as a dominant medium—much less the dominant medium. And Robins' spot-on observations about book design prove this point. For when a medium is usurped, it becomes in the minds of the public an objet d'art infused with emotion and nostalgia. It becomes the symbol of a kinder, gentler time.