I prefer a physical book, because it's easier for me to maintain continuous focus with it. I remember watching an old episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and they asked Gyles why he spent so much times with books. He said something along the lines of: "It's a very personal, kind of different experience. Books have smells, there's a smell to a book..." And well, yeah, that's kind of right. So, erm, thank you Joss Whedon and Anthony Stewart Head, because I would've probably never landed on that peculiar reason. Books have a smell that is very similar to how humans have natural musk. And it's not really the sort of thing you typically think about with books, but also it makes sense because of how physical deterioration, atmosphere, and even the material itself all play into a part of it.
However, digital does also have some advantages to it. It's less physically cluttered, easier to move when you relocate, and usually if you're into niche antiquarian literature with books that fetch high to outrageous prices that can usually be worked around with digital copies instead. For example, the specific published and printed version of the Don Quixote volumes that Johnny Depp talks about in the beginning of The Ninth Gate, all four of them together totals a value of about $22,000. Now, I don't know about you, but I don't just have that kind of money laying around, and also away from literary enthusiasm or collectionism that just seems impractical. Can get the exact same book, with the exact same story, for like $20 and under under modern republishing/rereleasing.
There is also a bit of a difference in the evolution of publication between antiquity and now. What it now is, is not what it once was, just as with anything that evolves and changes over time. And yes, in years past there was a bit more of an art to it than there is now. However: When you're poor, you're poor.
And even if I was wealthy, the way wealthy aristocrats maintain their wealth is: They don't spend their money. So even if I did have $22,000 lying around, that's still pretty impractical outside of enthusiast collections.
