No one ever picked up someone else’s Kindle and explored the title or back cover of the book being read. Physical books enable serendipity in a way e-books cannot and can spark interesting conversation between the reader and the person who noticed the book. I got to enjoy this experience over the Christmas holiday when my wife’s cousins boyfriend had a copy of Braiding Sweetgrass laying on a chair, prompting me to pick it up, explore it and ask him about it.

I don’t think I had considered this experience in the value lost with more people using e-books.