E-book sales are declining, while paper book sales, already surprisingly strong, are growing steadily.

Paper books have avoided the fate of most other physical media. Vinyl and tapes are popular and growing, as is film photography, but these are small niche markets compared to life before digital. Meanwhile, newspapers and DVDs have been replaced by digital alternatives, and even magazines are now more of an art object than something to read. So what is it about books?

“Because I have a book that is available both digitally and in print, I've found that print books always sell better,” author and filmmaker Daniel Hess told Lifewire via email.

Ask a book lover why they read paperbacks, and they might tell you that they love the smell of a book. Others, including several respondents to requests for comments for this article, said they found that books could take you away from the screen.