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but, on a serious note, why does it have to be one or the other? can't they co-exist peacefully and still survive?
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Oh, I think there will always be plenty of both. There are just too many advantages to hard copy books for them to ever disapear altogether. And that's especially true with non-fiction books that you study a lot. Most of my books that get studied constantly have tons of marginal notes and underlines everywhere, and I know them well enough that I can flip right to the approximate location I need in an instant. It would be really hard to replicate that kind of thing with electronic texts. I've been trying since the 90s.
Plus there's just something much more real and comforting about a book that I think people will always appreciate. Books have all the bells and whistles. It's like the difference between public transport and owning a car. Society may very well get to where we have small commuter trains and buses that can get you where you want to go in an instant one day, but would you really want to give up your car altogether? There's just something about a 59 Vet that no train will ever have. And I think it's safe to say that people will always ride horses too. They can go places no other vehicle can. There are books like that too--books that no electronic media can ever replicate. Like kid's pop-up books. You just can't do that with an e-reader.