It's the only thing

For me, the physical object of the book is in itself a bridge between what began in the mind and returns there. It is also a bridge between different lives and different times. I love to take down a book from the shelf and turn the pages. Would I want to do that with my e-reader?

From the moment the download of Austen's Sense and Sensibility was completed, I had tried to inveigle myself into finishing the entire e-book within a week. But the week turned into months and I wasn't even able to get past chapter one. And I thought, I ought to give myself a reprieve and extended the reading challenge the entire summer. Having submitted myself to the artifice of horizontal and deskbound positions with disappointing to nil progress, I conceded defeat.

And accepted the fact that there's no next best thing to feeling the book against your palm while curled up in bed or sitting in your favorite squashy wing chair.