Johanna Drucker's "Digitizing the Book" argues that the digital transformation of the book is not merely a technological shift but a fundamental redefinition of its material form, cognitive implications, and cultural significance. The book challenges the notion of the digital as a transparent or purely informational medium, instead emphasizing its inherent materiality and the ways in which digital technologies shape our understanding and experience of textual content. Drucker contends that the transition from print to digital involves a loss of certain qualities associated with the physical book while gaining new affordances, necessitating a critical examination of what constitutes "the book" in a digital age.

The work's key ideas revolve around the material transformations of the book across different media, the cognitive shifts induced by screen-based reading, and the historical contingency of the codex form. Readers gain an understanding of how the digital medium alters not only book production and distribution but also our perception of text, authorship, and knowledge itself, prompting a deeper engagement with the historical evolution of the book and its future trajectories.

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Key concepts

Materiality of the digital — How digital interfaces and technologies have their own physical and structural qualities that influence information.
Cognitive ecology of reading — The ways in which different media environments shape our thought processes and reading habits.
Codex as a historical construct — The printed book (codex) is not a universal or eternal form, but a product of specific historical and technological developments.
Media specificity — The idea that each medium has unique characteristics that affect its content and how it is received.