How we read now

Even better, electronic reading offers some options that paper doesn’t. Elif Batuman, author of “The Possessed,’’ found that her book purchasing tripled when she bought a Kindle. As she wrote in an essay for the Guardian last fall, her device encouraged a drunken rereading of the entire oeuvre of Agatha Christie, as well as more highbrow texts. “The Kindle is wonderful for drunk people,’’ she wrote, “because you can climb into bed, press one button, and ‘The Anatomy of Melancholy’ instantaneously materializes before you.’’

There are benefits beyond pure hedonism as well. Author Steven Johnson, an eager digital convert, said that e-books had transformed his research process. Given his travel schedule, the fact that e-books are searchable, and the ability to download scans of rare books in their original layout, he said, “I’m now at the stage where I will always choose to read electronically if I can.’’

Still, for many of us, a digital file is not yet a satisfying replacement for a book. In one strange sign of ambivalence, some readers are buying books electronically, then repurchasing the same titles in paper. The first person to mention this habit to me was Atul Gawande, who reads on a tablet, on an e-reader, in print, or listens to an audiobook, depending on whether he’s traveling, in his car, or at home. As a result, he said, “I spend stupid amounts of money, because I’m usually buying my books in at least two formats.’’

Gawande is a surgeon, bestselling author, New Yorker writer, prominent health policy advocate, and parent, so I assumed he was just outdoing the rest of us again. But Carole Horne, general manager of the Harvard Book Store, has observed the phenomenon among her customers as well. “People come in and say, ‘I read this on my iPad, and now I want to own it,’ ’’ she said. “And they buy a copy of the book. I particularly find the language interesting, because everybody says exactly that: I want to own it. As if somehow having it on their e-reading device is not really owning it.’’