Why I Still Buy the Physical Book

I’ve owned an ereader for years, on and off, gifted once and bought once after the first one broke, and I keep trying to make it my main reading device because the case for it is genuinely good. Lighter than a hardcover, doesn’t take up shelf space I don’t really have, easier on a plane. I read maybe four books a year on it and the rest on paper, and I’ve finally stopped telling myself that’s about to change, the way you stop telling yourself you’ll finally start using a gift you never really wanted in the first place.

The honest reason is the margin. I write in books, small notes, a single word sometimes, a underline with a question mark next to it when something doesn’t track, and I’ve tried the digital equivalent, highlighting and notes that sync to an app, and it does not produce the same object afterward. A margin note is spatial. I remember where on the page a thought happened, which corner, how close to the paragraph break, and going back to find it later is less like searching a database and more like remembering a room. The digital highlight, exported to a list, loses all of that. It becomes a sentence with no context for why I flagged it, which defeats half the point of flagging it in the first place.

I recognize this is close to precious, and I’ve been told as much, mostly by people who’ve made the full switch and are perfectly happy with it, which is a fine way to read and not one I’m arguing against for anyone else. I’m not arguing paper is objectively better. My specific habit, close reading with a pen in hand, the exact habit that makes me useful at my actual job, just doesn’t transfer cleanly to a screen no matter how good the screen gets. Blood Meridian got read with actual pencil marks in the margins, a specific passage circled twice because I went back to it twice unprompted, and I don’t think I’d have caught myself doing that on a device.

The ereader isn’t going anywhere. It’s genuinely useful for a plane, for a library hold I don’t want to wait on. But the real reading, the kind that ends up as a considered rating in the notebook, still mostly happens on paper, pencil in hand, and I’ve stopped apologizing for that.