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Maybe it's never been fully examined, the fact that reading is (thankfully) one of the last remaining fully private experiences. That's why so many governments tried to ban books, no-one knows what you're thinking as your mind engages with another's mind, whether its through paper and ink or e-ink. Also, no-one knows what you're feeling, when you read, you read alone and have a breathing space before you tell anyone else what you experienced (or, perhaps you will wish to exercise your "right to remain silent" on what you thought or felt...having that right taken away in school after being forced to read a particular text must put many people off reading for life who otherwise might love it.) This private experience may well extend to the interplay between hand and eye and paper, or hand and eye and screen, causing one unique "user" to prefer one over the another, perhaps never really knowing exactly why, or being able to explain it.
Personally, I'm trying to keep a foot in both "worlds"...there are books I'm looking forward to e-reading...but it's strange that someone mentioned Watership Down...I can still remember the cover on the copy I read, the smell, the weight of it, the colour of the edge of the pages when the book was closed...
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