The Unbound Book

Aug 26, 2026

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The Unbound Book examines how digitisation and mediatisation reshape society’s textual communication, accelerating change and raising questions that reach beyond immediate outcomes. The volume brings together conference papers on what the digital revolution means for conventional paper books, focusing on the future of long-form reading in ebook, app, and screen-based formats. It addresses information overload, changing authorship and publishing practices, and responsibilities in electronic reading environments.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryLiterature

FormatPDF

Pages17

Reading Time26 min

AccessFree to download

The book unbinding

Digitisation – and the mediatisation resulting from it

Adriaan van der Weel and Joost Kircz

The Unbound Book The Unbound Book Edited by Joost Kircz and Adriaan van der Weel First published in 2013 by Amsterdam University Press Ltd. Published 2025 by Routledge 4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN 605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © Joost Kircz and Adriaan van der Weel / Taylor & Francis Group 2013 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. ISBN: 9789089646002 (pbk) ISBN: 9781003707912 (ebk) NUR 615 Cover design: Studio Jan de Boer, Amsterdam Every efort has been made to obtain permission to use all copyrighted illustrations reproduced in this book. Nonetheless, whosoever believes to have rights to this material is advised to contact the publisher. For Product Safety Concerns and Information please contact our EU [representative: GPSR@taylorandfrancis.com](representative: GPSR@taylorandfrancis.com) Taylor & Francis Verlag GmbH, Kaufingerstraße 24, 80331 München, Germany DOI: 10.4324/9781003707912 Table of contents The book unbinding 7 Adriaan van der Weel and Joost Kircz ‘I read the titles on the spines and remember’Te unbound reader of the future 19 Arianne Baggerman What a book was and what remains Toughts about the future of trade publishing 31 Miha Kovač Social reading is no longer an oxymoron 45 Bob Stein 81,498 words Te book as data object 57 Bernhard Rieder Bound to be a book Towards print as multimedia and e-books as paperbacks 71 Florian Cramer Digital readers’ responsibilities 81 Alain Gifard The digitisation of narrative reading Teoretical considerations and empirical evidence 91 Anne Mangen E-reading essentials in a time of change and unfxity 107 Ray Siemens and Corina Koolen et al. Electronic environments for reading A select annotated bibliography of pertinent hardware and sofware (2011) 117 Corina Koolen, Alex Garnett, Ray Siemens et al. Writing diferently in the digital era Hamlet in Hyperborg 131 Joost Kircz and August Hans den Boef About the authors 151 References 155 The book unbinding Adriaan van der Weel and Joost Kircz Digitisation – and the mediatisation resulting from it – is extending its hold on society at an unprecedented rate. Tis goes for all mediums and all modalities, including the modality of text, which is the subject of this book. Change of such a pervasive nature, and even magnitude, in itself may be nothing new, but certainly the rate of change that we are witnessing, and the acceleration of the rate of change, are unprecedented. Te consequences of the digitisation of our textual discourse cannot yet be fathomed, but they are likely to be more far-reaching than we can imagine. Te vast amount of serious thinking about the subject, and the staggering number of publications devoted to it, should not surprise us. With its tremendous ramifcations digitisation is not just a catalyst of change, it is a catalyst of thinking about change, and about the acceleration of change. While acknowledging that it cannot pretend to fnal verdicts on matters of such consequence, this volume proceeds from the perceived need for a deep and continuing conscious engagement with these remarkable processes of change and the forces that underlie them in order to appraise where we stand and where we are heading. To that end it collectsa number of insightful essays about important issues that need to be pondered as authors, the book trade, and consumers migrate to digital modes of writing,

FAQs

What central topic does The Unbound Book address?

It explores what the digital revolution means for conventional paper books and long-form text reading in digital formats.

How does the book frame digitisation’s impact on society?

It argues digitisation is accelerating pervasive change across mediums, intensifying thinking about the consequences for textual discourse and reading.

What formats and practices does the volume focus on?

It emphasizes ebooks, book apps, and other screen-based digital forms, while considering how new online text forms provide background context.

Aug 26, 2026

Upload by Kyle