Don't call it a comeback: Paper books are holding off e-books.

LL Cool J famously rapped "Don't call it a comeback!" Granted he was talking about his rapping career, which wasn't that stellar before except for some middling songs that sporadically landed mid-chart once in awhile. But critics thought his career was over by the late 1980s, and yet "Mama Said Knock You Out" arrived in 1991, and proved tides can change.

This is all a gasbaggery way of connecting to a story in the New York Times that says the demise of paper books was greatly overstated, and the sales of eReaders and e-books have stalled.

According to the Times, digital books accounted for 20% of sales last year, the same amount as it did five years ago, and sales for the first five months of 2015 are down 10%.

Meanwhile, independent bookstores have 1,712 member stores in 2,227 locations, which is up from 1,410 member stores in 1,660 locations from five years ago.

And the dominant publishing houses? Well, they're building onto their houses, their warehouses specifically, vastly expanding in order to stock their book supplies. Hachette added 218,000 square feet to its warehouse, Simon & Schuster 200,000 square feet, and Penguin Random House 365,000 square feet.

So were paper books ever really on death's door? As industry experts and LL Cool J say, don't call it a comeback.