The following is written by my fellow newsletter scribe Paul in Brookline. We got such a kick out of it, we thought we would share it with you:

 

Green Apple Books in San Francisco is stepping up to the challenge of the folks at Amazon by creating a 10-day series of webisodes that pit the book against the Kindle. I've only watched three of them so far, and, no surprise to me, it's a shutout to this point.  The most poignant part for me was when one of the booksellers is crying over the ending of Per Petterson's Out Stealing Horses.  Seriously, this is great stuff.  And the pieces really highlight one of the most important things about the whole debate, if there even is one:  while reading is a solitary activity, books themselves are objects that bring people together.  Someone convinces you to read the book.  After being read, it passes on to another friend, or sold to us to be read by a stranger.  I remember being able to walk into someone's home and get to know them a little bit by browsing their vinyl or CD collections.  What would happen if bookshelves disappeared because everyone had a Kindle? How would we connect in person around what we're reading?  Blogs about reading are one thing, online literary discussion forums and book sharing sites are one thing, but how solitary do we have to be?
The written word and storytelling are activities to be shared, it's one of the things our very humanity is built upon.
Put down your e-reader and give me a hug.  
Buy a book.

And if you'd like to learn about and/or support an organization that is watching out for the free flow of ideas and expression in this brave new world, click here.  

 

Thanks, Paul!