Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love my eReader. It holds almost 200 books so far (of which I've read maybe 20) and has space for several hundred more without even adding external media! It's truly a revolutionary device, but I would never go so far as to swear off my old-fashioned printed books. Call it nostalgia, call it stubbornness, call it whatever you want - I'll never give up on the thick tomes that weight down that shelf in the corner of my room. They mean more to me than just their storied pages.
But for all of you wanting something more than an emotional explanation of why I'll continue to spend money on stories printed in bound dead trees, here are my top ten reasons why eReaders will never replace paper books:
- An author can't autograph a digital first page
- You can't dog-ear a computer
- Note-taking in margins becomes obsolete
- You don't have to replace your library when you spill coffee on a single book
- You don't have to charge a paperback
- College students can't buy ramen by returning a digital edition
- A paperback doesn't electrocute you when you drop it in the tub
- Highlighters and plastic screens aren't friends
- There's no value to a "first edition" ebook
- You can't burn a computer in protest