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Paper books since the early 19th century don't last at all well. Older books that were printed on better-quality paper are a different matter. Libraries have a constant problem with the conservation of books. So I don't think we can assume that paper technology will last all that well. Peperback books that I bought 50 years ago are getting in a bad state. I have replaced many of my favourite ones with more modern editions.
But there is something very special about certain copies of books if they had previous owners. I used to buy a lot of books from second-hand bookshops and it was always a thrill to find an inscription saying that the book was a present to someone in 1898 or whenever.
My biggest thrill of this kind was at my Oxford college. The college was left the library of John Stuart Mill -- lots of beautiful 18th-century books. The librarian used to let me borrow them for the vacations. Since I am a great admirer of Mill, it was a wonderful thing for me to be reading some obscure 18th-century book whose last reader could well have been Mill himself.
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