Apologize if this has already been discussed, but I did a quick search and it didn't seem like it had been, at least not recently.

Do you use a Kindle? I got one as a gift a few years ago but don't ever use it. I just love the way real, paper books look, feel, and smell, the size of them, the different fonts, the type of paper, the way chapters or sections are denoted/separated, etc. A friend of mine is a "book designer" for a publisher and makes all these types of decisions about the books they publish. I think of it as a type of art. I love it when: sometimes at the back of a book, it has a little note about the typeface; the size of a book is a little smaller than usual and kind of thick; the edges of the pages are kind of rough-cut (although it doesn't seem like this is done anymore now); someone before you has written something in the book that you unexpectedly discover, or left their grocery list in it when they returned it to the library. I used to love when library books had little physical cards in a little pocket where you would sign it out and you could look at the card and see who read the book before you or how long it had been since anyone else took it out. My library has since gone all electronic and so you don't see any of this anymore (although, I do appreciate the increased privacy in that, even though it was sometimes kind of fun to see who else has read a book, I don't necessarily want other people knowing what books I read).

As far as I can tell, none of this carries over into Kindle at all. I don't know if maybe I don't understand its full functionality or my particular Kindle is outdated, but it doesn't even seem capable of producing more than one font. It seems to eliminate all the artistic elements of the book and turn it into a text-only experience. I also find it very difficult to navigate to the book, like say if I wanted to look in the Table of Contents and then go back to where I was.

Do you share the love of a "real" book? If you love your Kindle, what do you love about it?