Craig Mod articulates a feeling that’s been gnawing at me for a while.

Gradually at first and then undeniably, I stopped buying digital books. I realised this only a few months ago, when taking stock of my library, both digital and physical. Physical books – most of all, works of literary fiction – I continue to acquire voraciously.

Though I go farther than he does, and am falling into physical books for most things, and have little intention on reverting to digital. There’s a better, deeper emotion that ties into a physical book that’s important to me. Also, I find that I remember what’s in a book better if each book has a slightly different feel—I often remember where I was when I read a book just as much as the feel of the book itself, sometimes even more than the content.

About the only place I’d value a digital text over a printed one is reference material, which for me is often programming language references. This has an added advantage of being up-to-date. Novels, on the other hand, always play better on paper.

Dried pulp holds characters far better than soulless pixels.