21 Google Book Scans That Bring Surprising Intimacy To The Digital Book World

    Just when physical book lovers were losing hope in a world of Kindles and iPads, Google Book Art emerged. Since 2011, this Tumblr has collected the detailed, often beautiful, images that lay not in the writing itself but the history of the eyes who read it.

    1. A sweet child-painted drawing shows the subtle treasures hidden in books.

    2. Even the images, simply titled "Employee's Hand" look like eery pieces of pop art.

    3. And the basics of the library books become oddly comforting.

    4. "The End" is framed by blotted ink marks.

    5. "Distortion"

    All from A Prognostication of Right Good Effect, Fructfully Augmented Contayninge Playne, Briefe, Pleasant, Chosen Rules (1555). Digitized Jan. 20, 2011.

    6. "Digitization Equipment"

    The front and back of Six Questions, Stated and Answered, Upon which the Whole Force of the Arguments for and Against the Peerage-bill Depends (1719). Digitized Oct. 17, 2011.

    7. "The halo of a removed flower"

    8. A map left folded.

    9. "Neon moiré"

    10. "Frontispiece image transferred to the front page."

    11. "Marbled paper curls and peels"

    12. "Ghostwrist"

    13. "Employees Hands"

    14. A doodle left for those who make it to the end of the book.

    15. "Photographs of digitization equipment superimposed with cover and bookplate images, with neon glitch."

    16. "An employee’s fingers, a transformative gutter, and color samples."

    17. The Eiffel Tower photographed through folded tissue.

    18. A drawing of a young girl.

    19. And a drawing of a young woman.

    20. A GIF of a stain's depth, appropriately titled, "Stain."

    21. And finally, an apt reminder who all books belong to.

    For more google book art, visit the Tumblr.

    H/T The New Yorker