Are Paper Books Obsolete?

When my children were young, there was nothing quite like sitting between them on the sofa with an open picture book in my lap as they snuggled up and we read it together. I don't' think the Kindle would provide that same experience. Because picture books often have one picture on a double-page spread, it would be hard to see the art as it was intended in an ebook reader. Artists would have to change the way they illustrate books, and we'd be the poorer for it.

Would I want to keep my library in an electronic format? I don't think so. A Kindle might be OK for reading mysteries or other books I may only want to read once. But what about books I might want to keep forever? Since I started using a computer, we have gone from large floppy disks to not so large, not so floppy disks, and then to CDs, and now DVDs and all the various potable storage drives. Should I assume that ebook technology will not change and make my present ebook reader obsolete? If the technology changes, what happens to my library? How long will it be before I can't find any thing to play my old cassettes on or to use to change them to CDs or MP3? I see what advances in technology are doing to my music library. How do I know that wouldn't happen to an electronic book library?

As I think of children again, I am reminded that they have a lot of activities in their lives that compete with reading. Why might they choose to read? How about attractive and inviting books on their bookshelves or on the coffee table just begging to be picked up? Often the cover of a book tempts us to pick up a book and examine it. We start turning pages, and before you know it, we start reading. Why do libraries and bookstores keep as many books as possible facing out? Because book covers to create interest in a book. Would it be the same to just look at lists of books to download? Even if we read a review and see a cover on a computer screen, it's not the same as picking up a real book and skimming it. And one has to be at some sort of computer screen to acquire such a book to even browse. Even though kids love their computers and spend a lot of time at their monitors, handling a book satisfies more of the senses than just the eyes.

How do ebook readers work in the bathtub or hot tub? What happens if you drop one in the water?

These are just some of my concerns. I'm told that the younger generation does not have such concerns. But it's hard for me to envision another format as practical as a book which needs no batteries or recharging, will not be destroyed if dropped hard on a concrete floor or in the bathtub, and you can take a book to the table without worrying about a spilled glass of milk or ice tea causing permanent destruction. I don't' need to worry about the books on my shelves becoming suddenly unreadable, or, worse yet, just disappearing, as I'm told a certain book did on the Kindle once.

Would my daughter have done this with a Kindle?