1999–2002: Thoughts and Thought for Food Zammuto and de Jong first met in
New York City in 1999 as they shared the same apartment building. De Jong invited Zammuto to dinner at his apartment, where he played him some of his collection of audio and video samples, including a
Shooby Taylor record. Zammuto said of their meeting that "we both kind of knew at that moment that we listened (to music) in interesting ways and had similar approaches to music". In 2000, the Books started work on their debut album,
Thought for Food. Zammuto and de Jong moved often during this time,
Thought for Food was released on October 22, 2002. Praised by critics for its distinctive sound, it featured extensive sampling from obscure sources coupled with mostly acoustic instrumentation.
2002–2003: The Lemon of Pink Shortly after the release of
Thought for Food, the band relocated to
North Adams, Massachusetts, near where Zammuto had graduated from
Williams College in 1999, studying
chemistry and
visual arts. Zammuto and de Jong began the recording of
The Lemon of Pink around this time. Anne Doerner, a guest vocalist on the album, said the process was much more arduous than the recording of
Thought for Food, with Zammuto working on the album for five straight months. on October 7, 2003. It is similar in style to
Thought for Food, but oriented more around vocals performed mostly by Anne Doerner.
2003–2006: Lost and Safe, Music for a French Elevator, Prefuse 73 Reads the Books In 2004, the French
Ministry of Culture asked the Books to compose music for a new elevator in their building. The Books released a
Mini CD of this work in 2006, under the name
Music for a French Elevator and Other Short Format Oddities by the Books. On April 5, 2005, the Books released their third studio album,
Lost and Safe. Zammuto has a greater vocal presence in this album, and the album was criticized for this change of sound. Aside from this,
Lost and Safe was well received by critics. Throughout early 2005, the Books collaborated with the electronica artist
Prefuse 73. The Books appear on his album
Surrounded by Silence ("Pagina Dos"), and the
EP Prefuse 73 Reads the Books E.P. collects remixes of material sourced from the Books' albums. The film "
The Bridge" (a scientology drama) was released in 2006 and included "Enjoy Your Worries, You May Never Have Them Again" with permission of the band. Before starting a three-month tour of North America in April 2006, the Books had played only one concert, Zammuto wasn't always enthusiastic about performing The Books music live, stating in a 2012 interview with Seattle alternative station
KEXP-FM that "...The Books started to feel like a glorified karaoke, because we would play in sync along with these electronic rhythms." Zammuto expressed apprehensiveness towards touring, but says it is necessary to make a living, given his belief that people downloading the Books' music via
file-sharing The
Play All videos are composed of found footage transformed into a collage that matches their music. The Books often screened these videos during their live performances. The Books toured heavily between 2005 and 2007, including two tours in Europe and two Canadian shows. The Books began working on
The Way Out in late 2008. On April 27
Pitchfork began streaming the track "Beautiful People", which Zammuto described as "a three part Christian harmony mixed with a sort of
euro-disco-trash beat, an orchestra's worth of sampled brass and lyrics about the
twelfth root of two (my favorite irrational number),
trigonometry and
tangrams". The album was released on July 20. The Books played the
ATP New York 2010 music festival in Monticello, New York, in September 2010 and then toured North America with
The Black Heart Procession. The band had been chosen by
Portishead and ATP to perform at the ATP I'll Be Your Mirror festival that they planned to curate in July 2011 at London's Alexandra Palace. In January 2012, Nick Zammuto announced in an interview via
Pitchfork that the Books were splitting up to focus on other projects. On April 3, 2012, Nick Zammuto released
Zammuto, under the moniker
Zammuto. In 2014 he released another album, called
Anchor. Paul de Jong released two solo albums,
IF and
You Fucken Sucker, in 2015 and 2018 respectively. ==Musical style==