E-Books Ruin The Ability To Mack For Some

MY book, HIS Kindle.

I have nothing against Kindles and Nooks and whatever other pocket-sized, 10 oz digital libraries these companies will put out next. They're just not for me. I prefer books. I like scanning my enormous shelf and soaking in all the works that I've collected over the years (to take the douche-baggery tone of that statement down a peg, just know that these "works" include Maureen "Marcia Brady" McCormick's autobiography, Here's The Story, Sex Sex and More Sex by elderly nurse and dildo enthusiast Sue Johanson and my 2001 Carver High School yearbook).  

I do, however, live in a digital world when it comes to other forms of entertainment. My music and movies exist on hard drives, and because my rent check is the only thing I scribble by hand these days, I rely on my MacBook Pro and iPhone for all forms of writing. But books just don't fit into this electronic category for me.

Lisa Lewis, Park Slope freelance writer, playwright and my new same-sex crush, thinks E-books are ruining her ability to connect. She took to the NY Times website Complaint Box and voiced her opinion of the pocket-sized robots and how they've ruined her methods of swooning men on the subway.

"I had one good pickup line, and e-readers ruined it. I can no longer hit on a handsome man on a long commute by asking about his book — because I can’t see it. Gone are the days when, sitting on a train delayed in the station, I could imagine exactly where in the New York Public Library we would first kiss — in the stacks between Mailer and Malamud or Foer and Franzen? E-books may be saving literature, but my dating life has suffered.

We all know you can’t tell a book by its Nook, but for for me, a geeky 29-year-old N.Y.U. graduate, this problem is particularly acute. A man’s literary taste can score as many points as being good with my parents or an ace in the kitchen. I promise there is nothing flattering about me awkwardly straining my un-swanlike neck toward a cute guy’s Kindle to guess what he’s eyeing. Instead, I am limited to those who peruse The New Yorker in print. And I fear those days are numbered."

My gentleman loves the SHIT out of his Kindle. Lying in the park together we look and behave like two people with a large generational gap between them. I smell the ancient pages of my Grandmother's copy of Little Women while he switches from Malcolm Gladwell to Joshua Foer with the press of a button. I dog-ear the part where Laurie proposes to Jo. He comes across an unfamiliar word and with one finger asks the Kindle's built-in Oxford English Dictionary to define it. 

When I read him Lisa's complaint he said, "Well, if she's first noticing a man on the subway because he's handsome, can't she just ask what he's reading and spark up a conversation that way?" Other people have asked the same, and Lisa has answered on her website:

"While I appreciate those who would help me hone the craft of macking on men on the subway - my point was how do you target the right prospect?  The screening process was the book!  It's a huge turn on to see a man reading something I love or want to read... or to start up a convo with a potential new friend because one of us is holding a book we both love. 'Have you gotten to the part where'..."

But she does end the post with a question for her readers:

"Is literary taste a good starting point? Can you be with someone who doesn't share your interests? What do you think?"

Well, what do you think?