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Perhaps if in-demand ebooks were a better value, and ebook readers were either much more capable or far far cheaper (well under $50usd, perhaps closer to $20), I could see people being more willing to justify shifting away from their previous habits, or simply adding on a new option/habit to their current ones.
The cost of entry is rather high though, unless the reader lucks out and happens to enjoy the corpus of materials that are cheap or free. It's quite a step, and many are reluctant to take it, unless it can be justified by eliminating or at least largely replacing paper book purchases. Defensiveness about it is usually a response to the impression left by pro-ebook zealotry wherein bloggers or others proclaim things like "paper is dead" (often, perhaps ironically, in order to justify their own decision to go digital).
It's just a knee-jerk reaction, that's all. It's generally irrational and poorly thought out, which is why they tend to emphasize the emotional/sensual aspect, rather than the logical.
I too have both ebooks and paper books. I prefer paper books, but I don't have space for many of them. Luckily, I decided that I'm willing to waste some money on a redundant paper copy of it if I enjoy it as an ebook. Not many are in my position though, and don't have much of a reason to bother with ebooks in the first place. I know that if shelf space and availability were not problems for me, I would never have bought an ebook reader device. Of course, I wouldn't be romancing about reading in a tub or sniffing ink, glue, and paper and holding that above the digital "experience".
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