merchimerch

Slate has an interesting article bemoaning the loss of the paper-book for e-book, since it makes people harder to judge by their bookshelves.

http://www.slate.com/id/2261955/

It makes an interesting point, but it forgets that we have found other ways to advertise our reading habits to potential friends and mates. Facebook has it's own "books" category in interests and there are all kinds of "Good Reads" type apps. Never mind the book section of OK Cupid and most online dating sites.

I TOTALLY found my Bosnian because of his taste in books, and I did so without the benefit of peering at his bookshelves or catching him reading in public.

Our first online conversation was me berating his choice of Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson as his favorite book. "Diamond Age, are you kidding? When you could have chosen the most exciting pizza delivery scene in literature or Cryptonomicon?" That was the gist of my first message to my beloved Bosnian at a time when I was looking for socializing but feeling too wounded from previous douchebags to hunt for romance. We chatted for a month about sci fi and European culture before I wanted to meet him in person. I don't think we'd have been able to manage 9 hours of chat in person without gaining access to each others' bookshelves via social media.

So, it's a neat article, but I don't think that we're losing what Mark Oppenheimer fears. Although our books may be hidden in our kindles as our album covers are now snuggled into our ipods, we still advertise our preferences.