LH, I was only meaning to say that VOLTAIRE was willing to defend to the death your right to say whatever you want...;~)

Personally, I have to say that I don't see that "real" (ie, bound, printed, paper) books and the digitalized versions thereof have to be mutually exclusive. As a self-confessed perpetual student, I would be loathe to have to buy, or even seek out in a library, all the texts I need in order to read all the stuff I need to. Even taking into account the occasional 80 page online primary source (some of which I'll admit to printing so that I can read them in bed like a "real" book, still way cheaper), electronic texts are an enormous boon to the reader. Being a person old enough to recall what it was like to wade throught the stacks, or resort to ILL, in search of a specific article that can now be located with a few keystrokes, I'm a believer!

That said, I *don't* believe that these useful resources will ever truly replace the pleasure to be found in a nicely bound edition received (or indeed given) as a gift, or a beaten-up paperback read while sitting in the back yard with your feet in the kids' wading pool, or a lazy Sunday afternoon on the sofa with the newspaper spread out all over the room. It's a wonderful, ever-expanding world for readers, and I have no doubt that there's room in it for ALL kinds of reading matter.

~D