I’m generally speaking a fan of the eBook (in some ways, at least) despite the fact that I love the smell and feel of a well-worn paperback and the crisp, tight feel of a brand-new hardcover. Here’s one aspect of the eBook I must admit I’ve never considered. From Kevin Hartnett over at The Millions:

One of the most prominent losses in this regard stands to be the loss of bookshelves.  A chief virtue of digital books is said to be their economical size—they take up no space at all!—but even a megabyte seems bulky compared to what can be conveyed in the few cubic feet of a bookshelf.  What other vessel is able to hold with such precision, intricacy, and economy, all the facets of your life: that you bake bread, vacationed in China, fetishize Melville, aspire to read Shakespeare, have coped with loss, and still tote around a copy of The Missing Piece as a totem of your childhood.  And what by contrast can a Kindle tell you about yourself or say to those who visit your house?  All it offers is blithe reassurance that there is progress in the world, and that you are a part of it.

via Neatorama