you can have lots and lots of reading material in a very small space.
But, and this is a huge but as far as I'm concerned, if you lose power you can no longer read. If the formatting changes in any way, you can no longer read. Think 8 track and beta just for starters. Even old records -- which my own sons, the oldest of whom is 29, have almost never heard played. I have a small stash of DVDs. I suppose BluRay or whatever that is will replace them, and then at some point it will be something else. Fortunately, I have Netlix and Hulu and watch a lot of stuff online.
Remember the scene in the first Men In Black when the character played by Rip Torn complains he's going to have to buy the White Album yet again?
Personally, I love real books. I do not own a digital reader, and at present have no intention to purchase one. If I were to go off on a long space trip, then I'd probably get one. But for now, I have the public library. Everything you can read on a digital player I can get at the library. Plus, if there are large pictures, trust me, I can see them better in a real book than on a small screen, no matter what kind of definition you might have.
A couple of years ago here on DU someone mentioned that Life Magazine had made all back issues available on line. I was thrilled, because I used to read old Life magazines. Unfortunately, a LOT of photographs in life will span both pages, and in the on-line version you can look at one half, and then the other. Not at all the same as having the open magazine in front of you. One half of a picture. And then the other half. You don't actually get the whole picture, to be redundant here.