As Harry Potter flies through your mind, your hands are frantically flipping the pages of “The Half-Blood Prince”, trying to devour as many of the words as possible. Suddenly, a cold e-reader sits in the palms of your hands, and you’ve smacked right into a reference from a far previous chapter… and you can’t remember what it is. You desperately want to scan those lines again, and with a paper book, you could do so with ease. However, the e-reader is your only option. It’s too hard to retrace your steps, especially since you don’t even know what page it was on. In the end, you just conclude it a waste of time.

Apparently, not many people read anymore. I find that whenever I’m sitting with an open book in my lap, people are asking me why. It’s disappointing, and more so, the ones that do read usually prefer an e-reader. Now it’s my turn to fail to fathom why. Paper novels that fit ever so snug in your hands will always be on the pedestal above e-books.

For one, aside from the occasional paper cut, paper books offer you no harm. E-books, however, are a bit of a different story. For one, if the brightness of your e-reader blazing in your eyes before bed can cause inability or lack of sleep. In addition, contrast of the font and brightness can cause symptoms of eyestrain, which include eye fatigue, difficulty focusing, burning or irritation in eyes, aches in your head, neck, or back, and plenty of other unpleasant pains. And although the damage isn’t permanent, it can affect your ability to read smoothly. Just generally things we all don’t want to worry about.

Part of the joy of reading is sharing it with others. Paper books are often passed back in forth between my friends and I. Sharing e-books, on the other hand, is no easy task. In fact, as of now, it’s impossible. The closest it’s come is Amazon’s option to lend books from your kindle. That sends your book to another for 14 days, whist also stripping you of the chance to read that book for said 14 days. Other than that, there’s no other way- that is, unless you share the device, which doesn’t sound like it would end well at all.

Some would argue that paper books are worse for the environment, as they use up more and more paper, which results in more trees torn down. However, trees are a renewable resource. E-reader’s with touch screens are actually made with a nonrenewable material, and if the demand for them rises, eventually, we’ll have to find something else.

If you ask any paper book fan, you’ll hear them say they prefer paper to electronic because there’s something about paper books you just can’t replicate; the feel, the smell, the memories. The ability to actually see and hold the cover, and make notes in the margins. E-books are an interesting alternative, but paper book enthusiasts everywhere should take it upon themselves to never forget the original medium for literature. Nothing else can truly compare.