The topic itself will never have all on the same page in any era…ever. Having said that I will give the reasons for saying the same. Some of us believe that in the fast moving world of today and with so much constraint of space, have 10,000 e-books in a Kindle rather than in paperback editions and that too at a higher price compared to the e-book.
Personally, I always prefer the Kindle because of constraints of space. Living in Mumbai and imagining a sprawling library in your house or for that matter even a large book shelf is day dreaming. The fact that paperbacks now seem very expensive the moment you compare them with their e-versions is another reason why I would not go in for a paperback unless I have an autographed copy from the author himself.
Kindle, on the other hand is easily carried wherever I go and can store a huge amount of e-books. The most expensive e-book which I, ever bought was in 2.99$ and I guess that was because it was a new release. I have the liberty of scrolling through what I want and also leave a book halfway and go to some other and come back whenever I want to, into the first one at the same place where I had left it without having to look for physical bookmarks (which might have gotten misplaced) or reading some pages randomly to arrive at the desired page.
The other simple reason for e-books is I get a lot of them free of cost and easily available at one e-store rather than having to go to hundreds of physical stores to get them and in turn incur a huge expense (both on travelling and buying)
If you are an ardent book reader, you will enjoy reading e-books on Kindle as well as in the paperback editions. So, bottom line is rather than getting into the discussion of what is better when compared, lets enjoy reading as we have always done and increase our knowledge base many folds.. What say?
I guess a book lover would always love all kinds of books whether ebooks or paperbacks :).
For me the smell and the paper quality of paperbacks still gives a different feel :D.
I always writes in pages of the books , and when I re-read them I feel the excitement of reading that book first time,.
Debate should be not paperback books vs e-books but books vs. other forms of gainful mental engagement and company.