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Additionally the fact that I'm here using a reader instead of using paper books would suggest I'm not a luddite. I don't think we are even arguing about technology, but more the evolution of data management. Moving from file level to data level. What if we take the contents of my hard drive and throw it all into one big file, jumble it up, - text files, music, pics, etc. and then have a program keep track of where everything is. Sure it can work for search and retrieval IF properly tagged but I don't have complete faith in the software to do it. I've learned to mistrust software.
How many times have you installed a new program and found that it wants to install numerous other little applications along with it by default. How many times have you had to go into options or preferences in a program to find by default your data is being anonymously sent to the developer or some third party for marketing and advertising purposes.
Not that Calibre does this, but I just saying I don't trust the way it handles things. It certainly makes it's mistakes in recognizing authors and titles, which requires much manual correction. I ask it to add a folder, and then go back to see if all the titles were properly added and often some titles are left out. If you make the leap away from a file structure, and find it doesn't work for you, it might be quite a bit of work to restore it.
From a psychological perspective I think some people need a certain order to things. I personally don't need to have all the objects on my desk at tight 90 degree angles but some people do.
It's not always practical either. I haven't timed myself, but I think I could sit down, and click through the old file system to get the info I needed faster than clicking on Calibre to access it. Similarly I may be able to physically walk to the library of my house and select the paper book I need faster than I can access it's digital cousin.
I had a laugh with one of my neighbours. He asked his kid to look up the phone number of a certain business. The kid runs upstairs, turns on the computer, waits for it to boot, googles it, writes it down and then comes back down the stairs again. Total time spent way longer than the yellow pages would have been.
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