The fact that you can’t show off what you’re reading is a big problem with ereaders. People keep bringing it up.
A few people are probably relieved because they can now comfortably pull out their Harlequin romances on ereaders without fear of judgment. But what about all those people who want you to know what they’re reading, who read a book just to be seen reading it? And what about all those love connections we’ve lost, you know the ones, when sparks fly as you ask how she is liking that book?
Well, this problem isn’t unique to the book industry. It has been the problem with the MP3 player, too. But Apple is on the case. The iPod Nano has been redesigned (go ahead, have a look) so that it’s tiny little screen faces out and can alert everyone to whatever cool band you’re listening to by displaying the album cover. This latest innovation could revolutionize the way we show off what we’re reading, if only the iStaff could just put it on the back on an ereader.
It’s only a matter of time before we can all go back to proving how intellectual or trendy we are by displaying our books’ covers again. People will meet and fall in love over reading the same John Irving novel, promotions will be given to readers of Thomas Freidman, and everything will be as it should be.
