h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

* no need for batteries or power-supply

* incredibly good 'screen'

* can be used to kill bees or other bothersome insects

More!

* cheaper than looking on online versions

* More worthwhile than 99% of television

* better for your CRT eyes

* Vocabulary increases

* Much cleverer and enlightening things tend to end up in books than in any other medium.

* Just know which types of books to avoid. There are always traps for young players.

* You have a higher feeling of accomplishment after reading the book, rather than watching the rather tacky American movie of it's remake.

Extremely good for propping up a short table leg to get rid of bothersome wobble problems. Laptop screens tend to crack when used in this way.

Easier to read in bed, especially when lying down. Unless, of course, the book is a particularly large one.

Easier to annotate, although some people get annoyed if you scrawl notes in the margins of their books, so be careful to only annotate your own books.

HOWEVER, one major disadvantage of paper-based books / documents over on-screen ones is that people often borrow the paper-based books and fail to return them. If the book is returned it may be dog-eared, stained, scrawled on (annotated), or all three. There is no way that I would ever lend my PC to anybody, nor my laptop if I had one.

Ancient scriptures like Vedas were written on tree leaves couldn’t be preserved in original form. Paper based books can be preserved for 100s of years (but probably not for thousands, may be that time online books will be handy )