The Dead Trees Society

I’ve been reading exclusively on my iPad for over a year now, and on a Kindle Touch since Christmas. In that span of time, I’ve read bestsellers, fairly well-known authors, and even some really out-there stuff, like “Doormen” by sociologist Peter Bearman, which:

provides a deep and enduring ethnography of the occupational role of doormen, the dynamics of the residential lobby, and the mundane features of highly consequential social exchanges between doormen and tenants.

(It’s research for my new book.)

In that time, I haven’t come across a book that I could not find in the iBooks/Amazon library. It finally happened today, when I was forced to order the dead tree edition of Denis Johnson’s poetry collection “The Incognito Lounge,” based on Tobias Wolff’s recommendation in this podcast, in which he gives an excellent and much-recommended reading of the seminal Denis Johnson short story “Emergency.”

This is coming on the heels of a just-to-peruse trip to Barnes & Noble this weekend during which, for the first time in I-don’t-think-it’s-ever-actually-happened, I wound up leaving the store without purchasing a book. As a fan of the book industry, as well as a cog in its machine, I really hope publishers get their heads out of their asses and start giving us reasons to buy physical copies of books. I’ve already suggested one way.

Update: Because of my Amazon Prime membership ($80/year), the book will be delivered to my home tomorrow. I placed the order today at 10:40 am EST. The shipping cost? $0.