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One of the most obvious answers, personally, is that I'm a hoarder. I have no desire to get rid of the books that I've already read, but I also have no desire to buy a bigger house to fit more books - and this leaves me at an obvious impasse where books are stashed in awkward places for lack of space.
I enjoy visiting independent and used bookstores on occasion, and I find myself writing down a long list of books that I want to pursue when I get back to my computer. Many of my favourite books are 'doorstoppers', too, and it's frustrating to go about a day's shopping with a bag of newly-purchased 1000-page-books hanging off my wrist for the next six hours. I also have a very small handbag, and carrying such a doorstopper when I'm reading it is just as frustrating.
There are thousands upon thousands of free, public domain e-books available, too - to such a degree that my Kindle has paid for itself at least four times over. Well-known titles such as Pride & Prejudice and Bleak House are no longer under copyright, and so are legally and freely distributed in various e-formats. It's a wonderful feeling to have thousands of the classics that I've always wanted to read right at my fingertips, without needing to pay anything for them at all.
Of course, libraries will always have a special lure. I've always relied on them heavily, and there isn't fantastic Overdrive support in my state at this stage, so I still do browse for or order in paper books on a fairly regular basis: I save my disposable income for the books that I especially love.
Have I forgotten the pleasure of browsing through a bookstore, though? Has owning a Kindle trumped owning paper books due to convenience? Well, yes and no to both of them. I never had a brilliant experience browsing the vast majority of bookstores due to not being attracted to the bestsellers (my tastes, apparently, are "weird" and "fringe"). I've always had a wonderful experience browsing libraries, and don't expect that to change. Owning a Kindle makes it highly convenient to be reading three books at once, but it's less convenient when wanting to purchase a book which hasn't been released in an e-format yet - after all, I just can't justify paper books any more, space-wise, except for non-fiction.
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