I mean, no one's telling you that you can't or that you shouldn't. I just like having two decades of reading material on tap at any time without needing to lug a library around.
If there was an easy way to easily let friends borrow your books, I'd agree. The whole benefit of physical books (aside from convenience) is full ownership of it. I can always sell it or buy cheap used ones.
It looks like a blank book. Pages look, feel, and smell like regular paper. I download a new book and text appears on the pages. I read it like a regular book, and when I'm done I can erase the text and start over.
I know it's a luxury item for a limited market, but that's what I want.
I'm very pro real books and as a result was hesitant to jump on the ebook bandwagon. That all changed after finishing a particularly large book early during a long trip, lugging those damn dead trees around the country for a while and unable to find anything worthwile to read in along the way. Now with my ebook any book and every book on my "to read" list taking up the same space, same weight, and I don't worry about damaging them because the ebook is waterproof with a rugged cover.
I still buy hard to find and out of print books at used book stores, but those stay home and get gifted to special people when I'm done.
Yup, this is the way. My e-reader weighs less than my phone and is about 1/4th the size of a hardback or trade paperback with the cover or a protective sleeve. It's a game changer for travel, commuting, waiting time before appointments, etc.
I've read 200+ books in the span of time I might have read 20 if I had to throw an actual book in my bag on the way out the door.
If you angrily throw your eReader across the room when the book's ending sucks and pisses you off, it's a lot more expensive than that time I did it to Michael Crichton's Sphere.
I probably read about as much on my phone as I do on paper. I would never read a book on my phone. I hate that experience compared to reading a physical book when it comes to such media. I would have to think about it a lot more to explain it coherently, but it's ok for wikipedia and not ok for books.
I describe my book purchasing as "aspirational." I learn about way too many (potentially) interesting books / authors / topics compared to my time to read. If I complete one third of the books in my library before death, I will be satisfied.