Last winter when we first asked Jennifer 8. Lee to show off her shelves, she said that she didn’t have any books. She had moved recently and put her book collection in storage. Our reaction was, “Cool!” Our very first eBook interview. Then we brainstormed concept shots to cover Jenny’s lack of shelves.
Our bookless Stacked Up episode was thwarted in the months that passed before the actual interview. Jenny 8. had accumulated some books from colleagues and friends. (Math whiz that she is, maybe Jenny can calculate how many books on average a former New York Times reporter receives each month.)
So while the video includes some beauty shots of bookcovers, we weren’t able to show you our Japanese KitKat tasting (the soy sauce and wasabi flavors stood out) or the complete collection of Star Wars figures that came with Jenny’s furnished apartment (including the elusive Boba Fett).
Instead we got a glimpse of the eBook lifestyle. No cramped bookshelves, but also no reading in the bathtub. Lots of free sample chapters, but no subway conversation-starters without bookcovers to attract strangers. (Although perhaps right now a developer is putting the finishing touches on a Kindle case that shows a digital cover image of the last book open on the device.)
Jenny also talked about how she buys more books than before with her Kindle. This puts her in good company, given Amazon’s big news this week that eBooks are outselling hardcovers.
As Jenny says, “Books are big. And they’re heavy.” To that we would add that they are not a prerequisite for a great episode of Stacked Up.
David Goodwillie tackles two of his favorite subjects, radicalism and New York.
