One deep drawback of digital reading is that e-books are so quick to disappear. If you acquire an e-book, either through purchase or library loan, you’d better read it immediately and without stopping. Otherwise … if you forget about it for a single day … that e-book will eagerly slink away onto the third page of a list you’ll never again review.

Print books behave differently, of course. They remain exactly where you left them. They take up space. They declare: hey, at one point, you were interested in me … REMEMBER?

Obviously, this can become a burden, but, on balance, I think it’s a great gift: the eloquence of the physical.