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New technology only sometimes completely replaces the technology that came before it. For example, we are already well into the streaming age of television, but broadcast television still exists and will likely continue to do so for decades. The same goes for e-books: the market is growing, but paper books are still extremely popular.
And that makes sense to me. I love reading e-books, especially when I’m traveling: the convenience of hundreds of books taking up the space of one small e-reader is hard to beat. But sometimes, after reading a book electronically, I want to get a paper copy. Why? Because paper books are permanent and tangible in a way that ebooks are not.
If you really love a book, nothing beats a paper copy. Here are a few things that paper books can do, but ebooks just can’t.
You can lend them out
If you have a physical copy of a book, there’s nothing stopping you from lending it to a friend or family member. All you have to do is pick up the book and hand it to them. This can of course be annoying; some people are terrible at returning books. But lending a book to someone you enjoy talking to is great because you can now talk about the book you just lent. It’s a small thing you can do to build community.
[Related: Keep your brain in shape by reading more books]
Yes, it is possible to lend some Kindle books, but there are limits. Only some publishers allow their ebooks to be loaned, and you can only lend them to people who also use Kindle devices. It’s complicated – mostly for reasons that have more to do with lawyers than technology, but complicated nonetheless. Paper books, on the other hand, are simple: you just give them to someone else and they can read. It is awesome.
You can write in it
I’m going to be honest: this one doesn’t apply to me. I was raised never to write in books and I cringe when I see someone else do it. For many people, however, part of the appeal of a paper book is the ability to occasionally underline text and write freehand in the margins. Ebooks are trying to replicate this functionality somewhat, but nothing in existence right now is as flexible as a pen in your hand. If you’re the kind of person who writes in a book, you should probably stick to paper copies.
You can show them
There’s no way around this: a shelf full of books simply looks great. Across the room, now, is a shelf I built with my wife, full of books we both love—my cat sleeps on them. It’s fun, and it’s exactly something an e-book collection can’t offer you. Even when my cat isn’t sleeping, it’s something people in our house can look at to get a sense of who we are. I like that.
[Related: How to protect your books long term]
You can pass them on
Do you feel like you’re done with a book you’ve read? As in, you’re pretty sure you never want to read it again? Well, if it’s an ebook, it stays there in your digital collection forever. You can delete the file from your device if you want to free up storage space and that’s about it.
Paper books don’t work that way. For example, you can sell them, or you can simply give them away. You could keep them in a small free library, or give them to your friend. The book basically continues to exist once you’re done reading it. And one more thing: digital books cannot be inherited by your family or other loved ones. according to the AARP. That’s because the license of the ebook belongs to you and cannot be transferred, even upon death. That’s different from a paper book collection, which could hypothetically remain in your family for generations or even be passed down to a library.