Books, Virtually

Let’s be frank: online books and zines will never replace the real thing. Sure, you can crawl into bed with a laptop, take one to the beach with you if you are slightly insane, or even read the web version of TIME on the train. But sooner or later your batteries run down, eye-strain takes its toll, or your hard drive crashes. And, let’s face it, the cool, hard surface of a computer screen will never compare with the warm vellum texture of a good novel, or the  crisp sheen of a fine magazine. Moreover, you can’t roll up a computer to swat a mosquito, and roaming the aisles of a used computer store somehow just lacks the romance of an afternoon spent at a good used bookstore.

Case closed.