A traditional bookstore or library cannot complete all of these tasks. Computers work well in document creation, editing, storage, and distribution. But a fully functional computer cannot bring its display any closer to your eyes than the length of your bent arms because of its pointing device or keyboard. Typing posture and reading posture have little to nothing in common. Books transport and display knowledge and feelings in a comfortable, familiar format.
Books have no learning curve for usage.
They display a huge amount of textual and graphical information for their weight, cost, and size. Our hands balance them perfectly, paginating without the loss of context or theme. From the very beginning of the development of a mechanical or electronic book, these principles have been abandoned. They are kept somewhere that the reader has to visit in order to use. I believe the place to start our examination of the future of the book is in its history.