The other week I saw an eye-catching photo of a college library in The Wall Street Journal.

The library has a unique dome on the outside and something even odder on the inside: no books.Some say it's the forerunner of things to come.Digital libraries, we're told, are the wave of the future.They are already appearing in Boston, Texas and Washington, in addition to right here in my Florida backyard, so to speak.The Florida Polytechnic University in Lakeland, Florida, just opened a new library with not a book in sight. Everything is digital.I'm told college students love it, and it certainly makes sense for an institution specializing in high-tech.But I sure don't want community libraries to embrace the all-digital approach. I prefer the real thing, thank you.The real things, of course, are the good old-fashioned paper books that have enchanted me ever since I was a young child.While many may sing the praises of digital books, I don't think I'll ever stop lauding paper books and the libraries that offer them.Last year my girlfriend Jeanne and I went with our shell club on a trip to the Florida Keys. I took along several paperbacks to read on the beach. Jeanne took along her Kindle.Generous in spirit, she kept offering to let me use her Kindle, telling me how superior it was over books. She pointed out how she could have any book she wanted at her fingertips without carrying books around.I insisted on clinging to my old-fashioned books.A year later she gave her Kindle to her grandson. "There's something I like about holding a book in my hands," she said.There are plenty of people who love gadgets and are drawn to electronic books. An entire industry has grown around electronic readers and e-books.I formed the assumption that older people are more resistant to replace their paper books with e-books. But that sure doesn't hold true with everyone.I just came back from a church dinner where I had the pleasure of sitting with Jim Kelly who says he's "halfway between 86 and 87 years old." Yet, he loves e-readers and digital books.He tried a Kindle and several kinds of e-readers before settling on an iPad. "It's a fabulous gadget. I wouldn't want to be without it," he said.Of course, Jim has a strong personal reason for embracing e-books. It was only the growing popularity of e-books that allowed him to reach a lifetime goal publishing his own book: "Love! Adventure! Happiness too!: True tales from 60 years of marriage with the advice and objections of my wonderful wife, Ginny."While he will never be confused with Ernest Hemingway, Jim knows how to spin a good tale. He says he had so many tales for the book that at the advice of an editor, he had to eliminate half of them."Somewhere I read that when an old person dies, a library burns. That tells me I am now a library," he quips.Well, if he is, he's a digital library.I have always loved community libraries. From the time I was a kid I went to the YWCA library several times a week. In addition to going through all their books, I took every class the Y offered, anything from Bible study to crafts.As a kid who loved reading, I could lose myself in a book. My mother was fond of telling the story about how I "disappeared" from home one summer day.When I didn't answer her calls and didn't come home to eat, (a sure sign that "something was wrong") she was convinced something bad happened to me.She thought maybe someone "took me." Neighbors offered to join her in a search party.All while they were searching, I was under my bed, engrossed in a new Nancy Drew book. I have no idea why I liked to crawl into small spaces, but I did. I was too wrapped up in the story to hear her calling me.It's a good thing I got hungry and finally went downstairs.Now that I'm older, I can still lose myself in a good book. I visit two libraries a week, loading up on books at each one. Browsing to select a book is like reading a menu in a restaurant. Both are a fun part of the experience.My husband is also a voracious reader. When we leave a library together, we need a big book bag for all our books.Others have pointed out to us that we wouldn't need to make those weekly trips and lug all those heavy books if we went digital.I can't see that happening.While I've embraced some technology I never thought I would, such as my smartphone, I will cling to what I call "real books" and "real newspapers."How about you?Let me know your thoughts.