It’s all the rage

Kindle, it’s everywhere. E-readers are inescapable and aren’t going anywhere.

As a matter of fact they’re multiplying, like bunnies.

Barnes and Noble announced that they’re jumping into the fray and effectively sucker punching Amazon and Sony with their increase in e-book titles. The advocate watch groups are heralding this turn of events.  Increases in competition, lower prices and insures more e-readers all kinds of new toys.

But really, is this a good thing?

Amazon came under fire this week for an Orwellian action, they removed copies of 1984 from owners devices. Without prior notice.  Which brings into question ownership rights.

This would never happen with the old fashion models! it’s illegal to come into a readers sanctuary and remove their prized property.

Along with legal ramifications, what about the cultural ramifications?

James Walcott muses in this months Vanity Fair on ‘cultural snobbery’ and how the up-ward mobility of digitizing is working to erase it.

He comments on the audacity of a women reading a Kindle on the subway, the subway being the natural cultural highway, ” An anonymous block of pixels on a screen, making it impossible to surmise the state of her inner being, erotic proclivities and intellectual caliber.”

On the other-side of the argument, Walcott asks “How can I impress strangers with the gem-like flame of my literary passion if it’s a digitized slate that I am carrying around trying not to get all thumbprinty?”

As a passionate reader and an owner of 426 books, including 1984 and  ( yes I counted and no this doesn’t include all the loaned out copies which could be any where from 20 to 50) all I can say is that it will be a long, long time before you see me without a shiny, hefty book cradled in my arms.

And if you think this makes me a cultural snob, thank you!