Re: p-books persist

["James J. O'Donnell" <provost@georgetown.edu>]

Sandy, the short answer is "yes".  The results are not always 
reassuring (Stieg Larsson is big), sometimes interesting (I 
figured out one day that the guy sitting next to me was Noam 
Chomsky, based on what peeking with my peripheral vision at what 
he was reading), but more to the point, there is a cultural 
commodity feature of the traditional book that is lost with the 
e-book so far.  You *can* tell what somebody else is reading; you 
can start a conversation on that basis (as I did with Chomsky, 
showing him the book I was reading); and you know something about 
the people you're with and about the world (Stieg Larsson -- oh, 
well).  When I see an e-book reader right now, I know that I am 
with a fellow conspicuous consumer:  big deal.  Give it a year 
and *that* fact will be of no interest whatsoever.

Jim O'Donnell
Georgetown

On Wed, Aug 25, 2010 at 6:13 PM, Sandy Thatcher
<sandy.thatcher@alumni.princeton.edu> wrote:
>
> More to the point, I'd be curious if Jim takes note of what the
> people on the planes and trains are reading, whether on screen or
> in print form. I'd be more encouraged if they were reading
> serious nonfiction or the best of recent novels, rather than
> chick lit (sorry if I've offended anyone).
>
> Sandy Thatcher