I was on the beach recently when I decided that simply laying in the sun, absent of activity, was only creating boredom and a sunburn. I had already read the two magazines that now lay crumpled and tinted with sunscreen on the sand, but I noticed that I had remembered to tote my iPad along. Reveling in my genius, I flipped the switch on and entered the digital library.

Within approximately three minutes, it occurred to me that I was now holding my iPad about half an inch from my face and my eyes had morphed into a squint. What’s more, my thumbs and pointer finger had been increasingly creating an unattractive smudging effect all over the screen, adding to the preexisting visual barriers I was experiencing.

All I wanted in that moment was a BOOK. Not the kind on my iPad that, while so tempting and easily accessible, leaves you with a headache from staring at a screen for so long (if you can even see the screen). I wanted a physical book, with paper pages and the ability to make your own personal earmark where you left off reading (my sister laughs at my tiny, barely-there ones while I tease her gigantic ones that take up three-quarters of the page).

Everything has seemingly shifted to a world where catalogues have become online shopping sites, magazines have become gossip sites, books have become iBooks. I have quite the plethora of actual books stored in my room on display, but most consist of the The Clique and Gossip Girl series; in other words, the novels I satisfied my literary thirst with when I was much younger. Nowadays, books that I would read age my ripe age of 20 can mostly be found on the iPad that sits on my bedside table. Unless of course my vast collection of pictures threatens to go over my storage capacity and I have to sacrifice my novels for selfies.

I miss having no battery to worry about, no imminent end to the new world I enter when I start a book. The feeling of holding a thoroughly compiled bundle of hard work, giving you the intimate experience of being a closer part of the effort that went into the making of the story.

As many novels I have been through on my iPad, it could be time to retire my usage of it for reading purposes and move on to the world of paperbacks. But my journey may have to start with a reread of The Clique.