Going cold turkey on buying new books online...

So - after pondering about books being tactile, and it being a better experience to go into an actual bookshop than ordering online, I thought I would go and buy a book from a bookshop. But I always seem to plan more for my week than I can ever get through, and constantly line up things that I'm going to do on that mythical day when I have more time... So now I'm re-reading some books off my bookshelves, which is all very well, but I already know what happens in those books.

Which brings me to the conclusion that, yes it is nice to visit a bookshop and pick up books, and if you're lucky, go and have a coffee in their coffee shop - but if time is short, isn't it one of modern life's little luxuries that we can go online and choose a book, and have it delivered into our home...? 

Books are tactile, would you rather pick up a book or order online?

Books are tactile - it's the reason so many readers resist the cheap ebooks in favour of sitting down with a physical book - ink on paper, it's what we're used to. The feel and smell of a new book, or for some, the feel and smell of an old book, the familiar feel of turning the pages.

So is the same true of the buying experience? Do people prefer to go into an actual bookshop and pick up books, to going online and ordering a book?  Now I know book sales online are massive, brought about by bargain prices, so it seems clear that people will change their shopping habits to save money, but isn't it supposed to be about convenience too - why then is it so hard for the small online bookshops to get a toe in the door of online book sales? Maybe readers do still prefer to pick up a book before they buy it, this certainly seems the case with my books, where I can sell easily to customers at craft fairs and book signings, where they can pick up a book, and talk to the author, and will even seek me out again at future events to buy more books, but still seem reluctant to buy from my website...

Or maybe I'm just missing something, and online sales are just another of my many learning curves that I need to get beat...