The Books are commonly cited by critics to be of a genre of their own.[27] Zammuto has described it as collage music.[18] Paul de Jong described it as "the new folk music...[w]e make our own instruments, use our own libraries of sound bites while trying to create something universally human."[28] Although they have said that their influences include Nirvana, David Bowie, Roxy Music as well as new wave and classical music, these do not show prominently in their music,[29] though Zammuto was directly influenced by electronic musicians Squarepusher, Aphex Twin and Boards of Canada.[30][31] The Books' music usually consists of acoustic instrumentation of folk melodies usually played on guitar, cello, banjo and more, combined with a diverse range of samples obtained from cassettes found in thrift stores,[18] which are digitally processed and edited.[5] They also rarely use a drum kit in recordings and performances, instead favouring inanimate objects like children's toys and filing cabinets, which are sampled and looped.[29] Some observers contend that their music is aleatoric,[32] but Zammuto has disagreed, saying the music is very tightly controlled.[18]