When asked if I prefer books or ebooks, my response was thus given:
If I merely want the knowledge, digital is fine. But if I want the EXPERIENCE of reading, the physical media is part of the content.
I use digital media to keep up on countless fields, but if it’s something that I want to consider part of who I am, part of my journey, it goes in my library (preferably hardcover).
Loaning it out is loaning a part of myself, like saying “come here, I want to share this”, not merely pointing at something in the distance saying, “go over there”.
And that is why, even though I can read nearly the sum of mankind’s knowledge on my “phone”, I will always have a “library”.