• I read books when I want to escape computers, the internet and the distractions they bring. That's part of what I love about them.
• I don't own an ebook reader or a tablet. I don't have any plans to purchase one. I have no desire to read a book on my phone, and the only books I read on my laptop are technical books with no real value as literature.
• I like physical collections of things. I've never bought an eBook, nor music, nor movies to be downloaded. I have hundreds of CDs and vinyl records and around a thousand paper books. Books aren't simply things to read, but a physical representation of my life's history: virtually everything I've been interested in in my life is displayed on my bookshelves.
• I can give a book away. I do that a lot. Two walls of my living room are covered in bookshelves. When I'm talking to someone and there's a book I think they should read, I give it to them. I've bought my favorite books half a dozen times, because I want to have them around to give away.
• I mostly read books away from home, in places that I don't want to whoop out an expensive device (because it makes it a target for theft, because I think it looks dorky) -- parks, the subway, cafés. This is connected to the first point -- I like getting away from the distractions of the internet and being somewhere where I can just read.
• I can throw books in my bag when I'm headed to places where there's a high propensity for me to lose or have my bag stolen. Catching the subway on the way to a concert? If I lose my book that's $10 down the tubes, not $100.