I don’t really trust people who don’t read books, so consequently, I often interact with people who are readers. And one thing several of them have said is they are not buying a Kindle/reading e-books, because they prefer proper, real books. Electronic ones can never compete! Never!

Dear book people, of course, EVERYONE prefers real books. And indeed, nothing can compete with a beautiful book on paper: it’s the most wonderful object in the world. The look, the smell, the feel of the pages… The only thing better than a books is a library. That said, you should still get a Kindle. Having one does not mean you stop liking real books. You are not betraying your old, much cherished love of these venerable items. You’re simply increasing your options.

What an e-reader does is facilitate reading. First of all, your access to things to read improves immeasurably. I still get giddy every single time I press the “Buy with one click” button on Amazon. It takes about 10 seconds to get any book available in electronic format and for an impatient and mood-based reader like me, this is heaven. And despite my undying love for good bookshops, they can never have as wide a selection as the enormity of Interwebs provides.

Once you have the books, the advantages of Kindle are even more manifest. Yes, at home, nothing beats a physical book and a cup of tea. But what if you’re going on holiday and want to take seven books with you, a couple of them 1000 pages long? I realize this doesn’t happen to everybody, but even one serious hardback is annoying to carry. Have you tried to travel with Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty-First Century? Or what about reading on the go: I used to lug a book with me everywhere, but what if you want to read a different one (this happens to me all the time) or your bag is too small?

After getting my e-reader (in my case it’s actually my iPad Air with the Kindle app), I read absolutely everywhere. I read on the metro, in the queues, during my lunch break, while walking home. I once spent 6 hours standing outside the UN building in New York, waiting for my conference badge. The only reason I survived that experience was having my iPad with me and finishing a book while waiting.

There is one other specific thing e-readers let you do and that is reading in the dark. Not something I would recommend as a general practice, but extremely useful when you need to spend hours putting a baby to sleep. Or you live with someone who cannot stand light in the bedroom.

I have by no means stopped buying and reading books on paper. There are entire categories I think do not work on Kindle – cookbooks and books with pictures and maps, for example. When I really like something, I always want to have it in paper version. But as a final confession, it’s true that sometimes, I do prefer to go fully digital. I really don’t think trees have to die because I need a night of easy distraction with Robert Ludlum or a princess discovering her magic powers. And I’m not entirely devastated that people cannot see those books on my bookshelves.