I definitely think the look and feel of a book can interest me in the purchase of it. Especially if it has textured paper. Another piece I really enjoy, even though it's mostly seen in children's books, are pop-up books. They always peek my interest because when creating it, you have to think of your design not only in 2D elements, but 3D. I actually have an entire book on how to create pop-up features for cards, books, etc.
While some of the pieces can be very intricate, some of them involve simple cuts that can make a design do something that it simply just cannot do on flat paper.
And I mean, how cool is this?