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If it's a new book by a writer i love, or one i am otherwise anticipating, i buy the book in hardcover. Otherwise, i will wait and pick up books in paperback. Then i read the book. Then i sometimes give or lend the book to friends and family, where i can share the experience of the book with them. Or I give it away to libraries, schools, etc., so others will have the opportunity to read it at no cost. Or sometimes i will sell it in a stoop sale, which is a fun family activity that we all enjoy. If i really liked the book, i save it and put in on display on my bookshelf, where i will satisfy my OCD by filing it appropriately with my other books, based on genre and author, and sometimes by size. Then i will walk past the bookcase and recall reading the book, which will give me a momentary sense memory of the experience of having read it; not just the emotion it evoked, but its weight in my hands, the smell of the ink and the paper, the feel of the paper and the sound of its rustling as i turn the pages, the size and style of the type, the illustrations, if any, the book jacket art and copy. I will remember, too, the process of buying it (browsing in a neighborhood bookstore, buying it online, finding it at a tag sale, a gift from a friend), and then all those memories will conjure further associations. I will also enjoy the pure aesthetics of seeing books on shelves, the colors and typography of the spines interacting with each other like art on a wall.
I am a collector, an accumulator of things, because things have emotional weight along with their physical weight. I've read books on my kindle and it is entirely unsatisfying to me for its lack of all this, despite its convenience. Many things are convenient, but convenience generally comes at a cost, and this cost is too high for me.
As for reading of daily information to which i expect to have no emotional connection, i can read it on my computer screen in my office or at home, which is big enough for me to read without squinting or constantly scrolling on a phone or tablet. I don't need the ability to read on the run; nothing is that important. If things are an emergency i expect to be called on my phone. I don't text, tweet, or doing anything with my phone other than answer it, listen to music on it, use it as a GPS that talks to me, or play solitaire on the train.
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