I certainly wouldn't swap the instantaneity and comprehensiveness of Google for a set of reference books but there's no denying the joy of perusing a non-electronic book of quotations, a specialized dictionary or an encyclopedia.
Do you think this is mostly due to nostalgia or is there the possibility that others would find the same act joyful if they didn't have the same shared sense of nostalgia?
Mostly nostalgia.
Also, "discoverability" perhaps - all information search nowadays is, by definition, targeted.-