I recently bought an e-book reader, the Nook Color, for school use and have been enjoying it ever since (although recently plants vs zombies has been taking more of my time). Recently I went on vacation, the best time for book nerds to read, and I noticed some interesting habits about how I choose to read now.
In the morning we would wake and ride our bikes to one of the local coffee places for breakfast and I would download the paper almost every morning onto my nook before we left. I loved the variety of papers I could get and it becomes much simpler to read the articles and find the sections you want rather than having to flip to the back to finish an article; then flip back to the front again to keep looking, all the while covering up your entire coffee table with the clutter that comes with digging out a specific section of the paper. I think that the time of the newspaper is at an end as people become more eco-conscious of the amount of paper wasted, the rise of internet journalism, and the technology becomes cheaper and more widespread. The bigger papers (NYT, Wall Street, even The Onion) have already started making the change as its time to adapt or die.
Books are an entirely different story. If you have ever seen my bookshelf you would know that I have always been a reader. For the past few years though, I haven't really had much time for pleasure reading. School kinda took the fun out of it honestly, but I still try to read a new book or two a year. I look at my bookshelf and I see some copies that are old and worn from the numerous reads and can smell the age on the paper. Some look almost new. Some are paperbacks, and some are textbooks. Each one is different however, and for me the tactile sensations of reading a book are something invaluable that a computer screen can't compare with. I don't know why it is that books are so important to have in their physical form compared to say dvds, which I recently sold most of my collection of after backing up their digital copies, but I think that it is something worth never losing.
The one area I think that could have the best improvement from a switch to electronic format are textbooks. Everyone that has been to college has had the experience of purchasing a 175 dollar textbook and being told that they can't sell it back at the end of the semester because a 'new edition' is coming out or else you'll get 20 bucks for it and they'll wrap it in plastic and sell if for 120. College textbook shops know they have you by the balls and they aren't afraid to twist. From what I understand, most textbook manufacturers are afraid to make the jump to digital right now as they don't understand the technology and are worried about how much profit they will lose from the re-buying cheap and selling high scheme they have going. The advantages of an electronic textbook are that other media (video, sound, games, etc.) could be integrated into the lesson plan and books could be leased out for a rental fee for a set period of time and automatically retrieved when the payment ends. I recently found out that my old high school will be getting rid of their textbook fee and switching to an ipad fee which students will be allowed to use to access their books. I think this is an interesting idea but that seems a little young for it to be of real use yet. Judging from how I used the school computers, there will probably be more pocket tanks being played than studying going on.
Cost: Your firstborn child
I did download an amazing book, Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, to the kindle app on my nook over vacation and didn't complain a single time, often spending hours reading . Having an entire (and relatively cheap) library at your fingertips is an amazing achievement and technically the things is a marvel. A quick finger flick replaces stuck together pages. Autosave replaces the bookmark. I am able to search for additional information about anything I highlight at any time. When I finished Outliers, I immediately went to the island Barnes and Noble to get my hands on the weight of a book and eventually came away with a leather bound edition of the entire Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy series. Added bonus, ribbon bookmark built in. 
I'll still be downloading books, pdfs, and I'm especially excited to hear about DC comics new online strategy coming with the series' reboots this fall, but I'll take an old well read paper book in my hand any day.
Have a favorite book or story? What do you think about electronic vs paper debate? Do you think it could be more useful in some situations than others? Is it a stupid idea to give 16 years olds ipads and expect them to use them responsibly? Sound off in the comment like you got a pair!
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