[kfarmer]

Don't get me wrong -- I love my reader. It has a great convenience factor for travelling or bed.

But it lacks the intimacy of a bound ream of smelly, smudgey paper (as others have alluded books are). If reading were all about content, I would have disposed of every book I owned back in the 80s, once I got my first computer. Obviously, I haven't done that.

I happen to like the feel of paper, the sound as the pages turn, the smell of it all. When I re-read a particular copy, I can remember what it was like reading it the first time, which is different from reading a different copy of the same text. This is something the reader cannot give me.

Saying reading is purely about content is tantamount to saying we should just digitize all the world's art and not bother with such frivolities as concerts or museums.

I'd hate to know what dating would be like it such a world.