“covers” for digital books are a skeuomorph. the function of a book cover was formerly to protect soft pages inside. digital books have no pages, yet the need to curate a visual tone and aesthetic for the book is so essential that they persist, maybe now more essential than ever

did u know originally some ereaders + digital books just dropped u right onto the first page of the book? no cover, first few pages to skip, nothing. imagine how strange that was. those human elements, despite being theoretically unnecessary, are in reality what makes it “a book”

ill save a few people a trip to google (use duckduckgo or something instead btw)

interesting exercise is to look for these. occasionally u will find an interesting one, usually theyre hooked back into some psychology. there are also what i call “soft” ones, that arent true skeuomorphs but have an element of it (like “room key” at a motel, obviously not a key)

sounds obvious but its interesting to go into why. “heres the card for your room” sounds so lame, a “card”, has financial connotations, highlights the digital element, a “key” sounds safer, way cooler, this is a good example of semiotics btw in case anyones unfamiliar w that term