Do you need to know anything more about these people? Harry Potter fans from two generations at a bus stop. Photograph: Murdo MacleodAH ha! I've finally put my finger on a concrete reason for my long-lasting, irrational, doubtless soon-to-be-port prejudices against e-readers. I had dinner last night with a few people at the Edinburgh festival, and eventually, inevitably, the subject of print ebooks vs came up. advantages and disadvantages but for another airing was duly rolled, and conversation followed the usual, now well-worn lines until one member of the party made what seemed to me to be a killer.
"The problem with Kindles," he said, "is that you can't tell what other people are reading on public transportation."
Case closed. Spying on everyone else on the bus read is my main source of entertainment on the way to work in the morning. Train lines are enlivened by trying to sneak a peek at the cover of the book the opposite person is buried in without them spot things what I do. One of my favorite internet destinations is people read the blog which posts images of denizens of San Francisco, with their latest reading material; a premium, in the meantime, that anyone who can unite me with a blog, I used to visit a few years back, written by a woman in North America, is used to clock not only the title, but since in the books bypassers reading, stifle for the nearest bookseller, trace the book and page and Transcribe what she found there.
Rubberneckers in the world, unite: When ebooks take over, how will we form snap judgments about our fellow-travelers? Think about it.
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