Is It Time To Consider Life Without Real, Touchable Books? [Books]

http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets...ticlelarge.jpgYesterday someone expressed sorrow about forgetting to pack books when he moved to a new city and I felt my heart break on his behalf. I can't imagine life without being surrounded by shelves of books. But should I?
Globe and Mail's Russell Smith wrote a piece entitled "A Lament for the Bookshelf," and in it he contemplates how it appears that books are slowly taking a similar path to the one CDs once took—from racks of plastic discs to libraries full of digital files. More and more people are reaching for ebook readers and sending books through email, IRC, torrents, or gifting them in the form of links.
Does this mean that old-fashioned bookworms like me a dying breed? Was it weird to head to Amazon and place an order of essential books to be shipped to my fellow book lover's doorstep? Should I have sent ebooks instead? [Globe and Mail via NYT]


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