The internet is like a book in the sense that it's less about the mere collection of information in one place than it is about the intellectual connections and growth that can be accomplished by the person absorbing the information.
In the same way that someone can look at vast resources of online data and the individual bits of information and little else, someone can read "Moby Dick" and conclude that it's all about chasing a whale around the ocean.
Isaac Asimov wrote an essay "The Ancient and the Ultimate" in which he describes the normal book as still being a pretty good way to store and access information. Only now are some real electronic alternatives coming around, and even those need improvement before they're as handy and durable as a paperback.
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