Why Printed Books Will Never Die

eBooks are slowly subsuming the printed format as the preferred vehicle on which people read books. But perhaps there is reason to hope that eBooks and print books could have a bright future together, because for all the great things eBooks accomplish—convenience, selection, portability, multimedia—there are still some fundamental qualities they will simply never possess:

• Books have physical beauty.
• Books have provenance.
• Printed books are collectible.
• Books are nostalgic.

Web entrepreneur, designer and novelist Jack Cheng, who recently funded the printing of his book through Kickstarter, told me that printed books just offer a more robust experience to the reader.