I was at the gym the other day, walking fast on the treadmill and totally absorbed in I am Pilgrim (a book I will review at a later date). Suddenly I realized there was someone leaning on my treadmill, and I had to come back to real life (not easy to do from the terrifying life I was living from being so caught up in I am Pilgrim). I was reading on my Ipad.

It was a 70-something woman trying to catch my attention.

“I see you here at the gym all the time,” she said, “and I notice you are always reading from your Ipad.”

She went on to tell me that she has a new Ipad which she is struggling to learn to use. She began questioning me about reading from this unfamiliar device.

Do you like it? Is it expensive? Where do you get your books?

I told her I read almost exclusively from my Ipad, having both Kindle and Nook apps loaded. I further explained that it could, of course, be expensive, though an electronic new release book is substantially less expensive than a full-price (read, non-Costco) hard cover book.

“But I get a lot of my books from the library,” I told her.

She asked me lots of questions about library e-books, and I tried to answer them, but suggested she visit her local library to get really good answers from the librarians instead of my probably largely incorrect answers.

You see, once Bill gave me a Nook for Christmas, I was hooked. Being a voracious reader, it gives me great pleasure to know that right there on that contraption I am holding in my hot little hand, I have book after book at the ready. Surprisingly, I get as much satisfaction from that as I always got from looking at a stack of books on my dresser.

I KNOW. I can’t believe it either.

I know all of the downfalls of reading electronically. You probably shouldn’t take it down to the beach or the swimming pool. When I have to leave my treadmill to, well, you know, I have to ask Bill to watch my Ipad so it doesn’t get stolen. No one would be interested in my tattered books. There have been stories as of late that the backlighting from books on the Ipad may cause sleeplessness. Perhaps most disappointing of all, you can’t share books with others as you can paper books.

And most creepy, someone (Jeff Bezos? Larry Page? Sergey Brin? Homeland Security? Barack Obama?) keeps track of what I’m reading. And what I’m highlighting. I know this because when I’m reading a library e-book, the book will tell me how many other people have highlighted that same section. Please don’t tell me that. It creeps me out.

But the fact that Google knows where I am all of the time and has a good idea of all of my interests and activities is something I’m simply becoming used to. And Them (whoever “Them” are) knowing what I read isn’t terribly problematic unless I’m reading porn or how to build a nuclear device in my basement. Which I’m not.  And I am waiting for my phone call from Homeland Security any minute since they undoubtedly read Nana’s Whimsies.

But despite any downsides, there is one thing about reading an e-book that I love most of all and is the main reason I will continue reading them until there is proof positive that if you read e-books long enough, you’re eyeballs shrivel up and fall out of your head. I love the feature that allows me immediate access to definitions and Wikipedia. I probably use that feature 20 or 30 times in each and every book I read. There is always something I don’t understand, and heaven knows there are always words for which I don’t know the meaning.

And someday I will tell you about me and my love affair with Wikipedia.

So, do you read on e-readers or are you a faithful paper book reader?