What's a Real Book?

I love reading David Lee King's blog - he's a brilliant tech-oriented person, very creative and thinks outside the box in relation to how we can integrate new technologies into libraries. Subscribe to his blog, he's amazing.

That being said, I was uncomfortable with a recent entry, What's a Real Book?, in which he states "I think it’s time for us librarians to get over our paper fetish."

Is it really a fetish to relish the weight of a book in your hands, to anticipate the crack of the spine on a new or dusty volume, the pleasure of turning the pages? I know, I'm probably romanticizing, and I'll admit I have paused by the displays of Nooks and iPads in curiosity, but I do love books. Real books. One of my favorite day trips is to find a used book store and just browse.

I know Mr. King has a point, that learning something new and being engaged in the story can be done online, iPhone, even through a blog(!) but for me, scrolling will never replace the experience of holding that volume in your hands, turning the pages, discovering notes a former reader had left in the margins, or a book mark, or even a shopping list. There are people who feel that eReaders are the future, that print is becoming obsolete. How about you?