"The German sociologist Georg Simmel once called touch 'the confirmatory sense' that collects information and confirms data received by the other senses and therefore would be our actual sense of reality. Only something we can physically grasp embodies true reality for us. [...] The access to the written content in the book is conditioned by the combination of intellectual and sensory activities, and meaning unfolds through physical and mental interaction between the reader and the book."

From my essay 'Re-thinking Touch' at 'Sk-interfaces' edited by Jens Hauser. (2008)