A simple one, nonetheless intrigues me.

No I'm not about to become an author (I don't qualify) but seeing several book ads pop-up recently on this site leads to me ponder - why, in a digital age, have books survived this long. And also ponder... if by some magic, i actually want to be an author - which choice would I make? Would I also choose to publish physical inaddition to eBook?

If I give a junior school kid a homework to list reasons why physical books would be dead in a few years, they might come up with something like

• they are big and chunky, your shelve will quickly run out of space

• new updates, changes in technologies (and this is even more often in computing) will require new editions, and this is quite expensive - compared with e-books that can easily be updated and edited inexpensively

• So gets out-of-date and obsolete very quickly

• process of printing and publishing, grrrr, very expensive

• link and references can't easily be connected

• With Tablets for ebooks, there is even no need for chunky desktops or laptops (which was previously the only remaining disadvantage)

If I ask a second Junior school kid to come up with reason why physical books would survive the digital age, I suppose I would get a blank sheet :(

Why e-books has not killed off books may also be a generational thing, … those who are used physical books can't let go and love the feel.

At 30, I'm not really a millennia myself and so I kind of understand the sentiments a bit

Seriously speaking, no one is expecting books to die to zero anytime soon, but they aren't reducing exponentially either

And the reasons why I still see lots physical books ads on Amazon probably goes a little bit more than the sentiment mentioned above. I think its also about weighing reputation, validation, trust, exclusivity and rarity of books versus the online junk-land where anyone can publish a resource. People are more likely to quickly assign quality and trust to a book than an ebook/online resource that anybody can write. This outweighs other inconveniences

Books are just better. They're a real thing, they exist, you can hold them in your hand, different ones feel different from books. Some are heavy, some are light, some have smooth edges, others more rough.

There is far more to reading a book than simply having words presented to you.

That said, I do most of my reading off e-readers these days. The volume of paper required and the space needed to store it is hard for me to justify at this point. E-readers for me replace cheap books, and physical book purchases are reserved for carefully selected hard covered books.

First, I read alot of ebooks, and have owned a nook, a kindle paperwhite, and moonreader on a tablet.

But I still prefer books because:

1. Reading stuff with diagrams (popular science books)

2. Borrowing books (A family member says: I just finshed reading XYZ, would you like to read it?)

3a. Passing a book I've read to my wife who doesn't own a kindle without having to give her my actual kindle, and without forcing her to read it on her tiny phone screen.

3b ... from my wife ... without buying it again on my kindle

3. Tour books (I love lonely planet), because of maps, and because it's faster to turn pages on a subway then pulling out ebooks

4. Reading magazines (Try reading National Geographic on an ebook. While you can technincally do it, the experience is greatly inferior)

5. My mother-tongue is not spoken by many people, and is not supported on most ereaders. (I still read alot in English though)

6. Reading for my *small* children. (There are 50 reasons why basing child reading on tablets/ereaders is a bad idea)

6a. They can more readily choose from a book-shelf then an app

6b. They recieve alot of books as gifts

6c. Child a likes to hold her book in her hand as she is waiting for me to finish reading a book for her sister

6d. Sometimes at around the age of 2, they like to destroy books, so I'm not going to leave them alone with it

7. Comics, I like to read comics, some of which are indie, and not on ebooks, and most of which do not look as good on a tablet. (I wouldn't even think of reading them on E-Ink)

Solve these issues, and I'll gladly stop owning books. However, ebooks have been around for a decade, and these problems have not been solved in a fashion which is satisfactory to me. That being said, for english fiction, I do alot of reading in ebooks.

In other parts of the world, shipping fees are still certain obstacle especially when ordering from US.

Also, my primary problem with ebook readers is they are terrible at displaying PDF and size isn't big enough (big ones are both few and rather expensive), I recently got a 12" 1440p tablet just for this (and its rather heavy and don't offer same battery life)

I now have a variety of digital books and ebooks. Some books I have both editions. I like to have one ebook and one physical book on the go at the same time. Some of the reasons I like physical books have already been mentioned by SillyCow (the lending a physical book is a big one for me). I like to read outside in the sun sometimes which I prefer paper for.

When I have both digital and physical copies of a book I always use the physical book where possible. I just find flicking through far easier and even finding things isn't particularly difficult.

I really just like books and actually having a book, that in itself is the biggest reason for me. With games almost everything I have is digital now and I am fine with that but I feel totally different about books. If only I could highlight phrases in a real book without permanently damaging it...

I own and still buy a mixture of both. For fiction and linear non-fiction books (like a biography) I would generally buy an eBook due to shelf space, ease of purchase and speed of delivery. For reference books (e.g recipe, programming books), physical books all the way. Much easier to navigate as I normally jump back and forth between pages and chapters.

There are also some books that are just better as a physical book due to artwork and/or content like Supercade.

I'm not particularly old, I'm only in my twenties after all, so I qualify as a millennial. I still prefer to read a physical copy of a book rather than e reader. To that effect I still have a giant library sitting around. It's really just the feel of holding a book in your hands. It's definitely a tactile thing. I do a lot of technical reading on my iPad though.

It's a lot like why some people still watch broadway shows or theater in general. There's a lot of weird examples like that. Tabletop gaming like D&D and 40k. I would even argue paintball. Until vr becomes a thing, it's just better to have something real as opposed to a tablet or a game. The realism part is what really matters.

I would also argue that if you were never given a physical book but instead only an e reader, you'd never really care. Partially many of us are more used to real books, especially older generations. But the other argument still applies.