Hard Copies

In an age wherein I can replace the books on my shelf with an e-reader, I prefer not to. And I have strong reasons that justify my preference. The main reason being that I find shelling out small amounts of money from time to time to buy books to be easier on the pocket than paying a lump-sum amount to buy an e-reader. Owing to their durability and easy maintainance, physical copies of books last for many years and can be used by succeeding generations too, I can personally vouch for this, having turned to decades-old Physics and Chemistry books in times of need. Reading physical copies also creates a scope for learning through research - a search in the dictionary for the meaning of just one word makes me learn many others, or, research on a concept leads me to learn more than I intended to. As a poet (though amateur), I hope to publish a book of my poems and would definitely like for it to be published as a hard copy, for the simple reason that they are accessible to everyone. The very physical form of hard copies is also an another reason why I prefer them to the available alternatives - they are easy to carry, lend and borrow. I am sure there are counter-arguments but I find my case more compelling.