Recently I had the most relaxing experience. I came away with blackened fingertips and oodles of coupons.

Can you guess what I was doing?<a href="http://judythewriter.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/book-v-tablet.jpg"><img class="alignright size-medium wp-image-4699" src="http://judythewriter.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/book-v-tablet.jpg?w=300" alt="????????????????????" width="300" height="266" /></a>

I read the Sunday paper leisurely on Monday morning. An event that was once a routine part of my Sundays until we moved to the mountains.

We don’t have Sunday newspaper delivery in our neck of the woods. Our local newspaper arrives once a week in our mailbox and reading it doesn’t take long. It's called the South Fork Tines and my high school newspaper was thicker.

Sunday papers are available at the local convenience store, but that necessitates a trip down the mountain. We haven’t developed the habit.

I doubt we will. We can always get the news via television or internet.

I picked up the one-inch thick edition of the Pueblo Chieftain, Colorado’s oldest daily newspaper, at the local hotel where I do my water aerobics three mornings a week.

The Chieftain isn’t nearly as large as the Houston Chronicle was, but the edition was filled with ads, coupon pamphlets, and the Sunday funnies section.

Oh, how I miss those funnies. Maybe that’s why I enjoyed the experience so much.

Reading on-line just doesn’t convey the same feelings or give the texture of the newsprint in my hand. Yes, I get the same information from other sources, but not the tactile sensations.

I fear my pleasure of reading print newspapers is disappearing. And, not because of availability where I live.

Look around you. You’ll see what I see. Readers staring at screens on phones and tablets.

Michael Bourne observed the phenomena when he rode the subway into the New York City and wrote about it in his article, <a href="http://www.themillions.com/2014/04/screens-on-the-subway-the-rolling-library-is-going-digital.html" target="_blank">“Screens on the Subway: The Rolling Library Is Going Digital.”</a>

“A decade ago, none of the devices my R train companions were so avidly viewing even existed. Back then, if you didn’t want to read on your morning subway commute, you stared off into space… Now, more and more often, those idle moments – on subway cars, on airplanes, in dentist’s offices – are being filled by games and movies and social media. By screens.”

I still read print: paperback books, magazines and newspapers. I also read on my phone (handy when I’m forced to wait unexpectedly), on my Kindle, and on my iPad. I sometimes stare at a screen to play games or check social media.

But holding those objects is just not the same as reading the Sunday paper spread out at the breakfast table with a nice cup of tea.

How about you? Do you read from printed papers or is most of your reading following the trend and done via screens?