Hey, look: here at Snarkmarket, we love printed books so much, we made one ourselves. We love them so much, we write love letters to 16th-century Venetian printers. I love books so much that when I broke my arm and couldn’t hold onto a heavy paperback with two hands, I cried.

At the same time, reading machines are inevitable — and what’s more, if they’re done well, they will actually save reading, not destroy or diminish it.

And again, remember: not everyone can get to the bookstore to get books, not everyone can hold onto books anymore, not everyone can afford to get their book printed and distributed… And above all, not everything we read is a book! Or a newspaper! Or even a sheet of paper!

We need to make the case for this more often. I’ll try to do that in a post today.

Also, this isn’t part of the current Nook functionality, but let’s imagine: the Nook 2.0 can either take a picture of or shoot out a little red scanning bar to read a bar code label. This way, you can be browsing the stacks, and if you find a book you like, you can insta-load it on your Nook — no typing required.