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Originally Posted by magicmonster
e-books have some of the traits that made paperbacks popular:
convenient to carry around
most times cheaper than the hardbacks
adds more benefits by not being flammable
does not clutter up the house
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Wider selection of works available. Extensive collections in niche genres. Available in many lengths.
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downside - hard to loan or sell but easy to redownload
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Easy to redownload within a few years. Ability to redownload a decade later, so far, hasn't been true, except for a very small handful of stores. Baen. Fictionwise. A number of small publisher's-own-store sites that sell non-DRM'd PDFs. Ebooks bought from Amazon in 2003 are no longer downloadable. "Secure" PDF books bought in 2005 can no longer be authorized to new devices.
Even though paperbacks were designed to be disposable, many people collect them, read them again years later, share them, hand them down to their kids. The market hasn't figured out how to let ebooks (legitimately) fill those niches yet.