Books as objects

Reading essays by (among others) the beautiful and gorgeous maker of beautiful and gorgeous books, Audrey Niffenegger. I am a pulled back to thinking about books as objects. How they are physical portals between the private worlds of our own heads to the broader worlds of our total cultural experience. That, as artifacts, they should carry potency and be treated with respect. That those considerations should be bound up in their making, even by deliberate irreverent omission. But I'm back to the question of how to create those- do I use a board bound format. can it be done in paperback. I think those questions need to be answered by what can be printed in the time that I have- what is available to me. There is no point considering the physical object if I'm not going to produce a physical object.