Reply #12: I find it fascinating how you describe the 'thereness' of a book.

[Shandris]

Back in '91, a little-known roleplaying game company called FASA put out a mesh of a fantasy/cyberpunk game called Shadowrun. In the game world, magic had returned to the world as well as a globe-spanning VR system called the Matrix (no relation to the movie of the same name). Because everyone had access to the Matrix (even kiosk stands on the streets, so people could stop to look something up if they didn't have access to portable cyberdecks (computers)), libraries had vanished and were replaced by Matrix-downloadable versions.

The wizards even debated the merits of Matrix-stored and accessible spells versus having them scribed in tomes, like the wizards of old. One of the books had a mage describing why he didn't use the new Matrix-enabled media for his spells, and his description is pretty darn close to word-for-word what you said. I agree...I can't stand Kindles or the like. I need a book, I need the musty smell of paper if its' an old book. I need the feel of the paper flipping, the sound it makes, the way you hold it when you curl up in a chair.

Books forever, electronic media be damned.

Can you imagine losing the sum of human knowledge in one bad solar storm? One freak cosmic occurance? *shudder*