When you enter a library, any library, you the first thing you notice is the subdued atmosphere. The same usually holds for bookstores. Employees and volunteers at either usually speak in semi-hushed tones and seem sedate in their manner. Another thing you notice in a library is the faint smell of aged pages in classic books, published decades ago and still beautiful to read, that have been well-worn and well-read.

If I’m looking for a book I just want to read but not keep, I go to the Library. If I’m looking for a new revision of a book or a book I want to keep, I hit the bookstore. As I look for the types of books I want in either location, I find quite a variety of books of the same genre, within the same topic, or by the same author. I pick them from the shelf, heft them in my hands, check the table of contents for more specific information on subject, check the publishing date if appropriate, and make a decision to take it home for a few weeks, or buy it, or not.

Once I purchase a book and it’s mine, I really use the book. I earmark pages, put stars next to paragraphs or on pages I want to revisit, highlight words and phrases in parts of passages I will re-read so that all I will have to read the second time around are the highlighted words. (I have a knack for creating one sentence that gives me the page’s content with the highlighting.) I write in the margins and note a great thought or turn of phrase. I also flag pages with the flags sticking out and a word or two to indicate the topic I want easy access to.

In a Library, I am usually alone in the aisle with only an occasional passerby. Here, in the midst of the volumes and wooden shelves, in the quiet of the aisle, I find comfort. I find calmness. I can escape the hustle and bustle and the stresses awaiting me beyond the library walls. And I can lose myself in the inner delight of interacting with the books on a personal level. And I love studying the pictures and illustrations closely.

I love bookstores and libraries. I walked into our local Public Library the other day and the first thing I noticed was a bank of computers near the check-out counter. I know this has been going on for years - starting with book look-up software, then expanding to offering free internet service. There was a person sitting in front of each one that is a computer and no one at the book look-up pc.

It occurred to me then that this library may not be here someday. It may be replaced sooner than you think by any number of other establishments because the general public is hooked on online books they can read on Kindles, tablets, and notepads. They would rather hold a thin electronic gadget than a real book, especially if the actual book is thick like a Harry Potter novel.

I realize I haven’t had much experienced actually reading a book on one of the many devices out there. I know the pages look like they are actually turning and am sure there are sound effects that come with such actions. But I don’t know if you can flip many pages at once with your thumb like you can with a real book. I want to feel the paper flipping, hear the swishing sound it makes, and feel the slight breeze that emerges when I do. I’m a tactile person.

I know the convenience of using an electronic reading device (ERD) is attractive to those who read their books through an app. They like that their ERD is lightweight, it isn’t as cumbersome (although it may well be wider and not easy to fit in a pocket or pocketbook) as a real book, and the pages won’t be flipped about by the wind on the beach. And I think they take sun glare into account for easier reading. I have bad eyes and trying to read whole pages on an ERD feels harder on my eyes than the printed word in a real book.

With a real hardback or paperback book, you don’t have to worry about the battery dying right in the middle of a good part or having to wait to get back to it once the battery is recharged.

And I wonder what books the younger generation is reading through their apps. Are they books by Faust, D. H. Lawrence, or Mark Twain? Even if these classics are available online, do they know they’re there? Are they apt to look for them there? Do they even know who these authors are? How long will it take for library buildings to fade away to be replaced by modern, techy stores?

I own quite an extensive library of books myself. I have many categories, too. Some are horror novels, some are self-help, a wide variety of cookbooks for international foods, spiritual and motivational books, and lots of computer training books including those for Dummies, among others. These are a few of my categories. And I have lots of books that I am planning to swap out at a local used bookstore. Some books I will never give up though. One of my most treasured books is Bram Stoker’s Dracula, first US edition from the year the book was first published in England in 1897.

If society continues the trend of turning to electronic reading devices, what lies ahead? Will there be any libraries or offline bookstores a hundred years from now? If not, how would you get a signed copy of that new book you bought at the author’s book signing? How many classics and other gems and works of art (or words of art?) will be lost by then because too few people read them - if anyone by then? What’s the future fate of tangible books? And what’s the world coming to...the same governing state as the one in Fahrenheit 451? If you want to know what that is, go to your local library and ask for the book.