People DO read!

Finally, someone has something positive to say about reading! In a New York Times blog called Opinion, author Timothy Egan rebuts Apple CEO Steve Jobs' comment saying that "people don't read anymore." While Egan praises Jobs' product innovations, he scolds him for his inability to see another market opportunity. After all, 40% of the population DOES read. Jobs has revolutionized the music industry, so why not the book industry? This is a witty and thoughtful piece.

Opinion: Book Lust
Every now and then, someone who is brilliant says something stupid — often the result of spending too much time riding a jet stream of high praise. Steve Jobs, the co-founder and chief executive of Apple Inc., did such a thing last month when he all but declared the death of reading.

Asked about Kindle, the electronic book reader from Amazon.com, Jobs was dismissive. “It doesn’t matter how good or bad the product is,” he told John Markoff of The Times, “the fact is that people don’t read anymore. Forty percent of the people in the U.S. read one book or less last year.” (Link to blog.)

P.S. Even though I'm both a book worm and gadget geek, I'm not really lusting after a digital book reader. However, I would be very tempted to buy a book reader that was designed and manufactured by Apple (the iRead?) because it would probably be the easiest to use, have the best features, and look the coolest.

One feature that would absolutely cinch the deal for me would be the ability to both read and listen to the book. For example, let's say I'm on the couch engrossed in a good mystery, but have to leave for an appointment. So when I get in my car, I'd just plug my iRead into the car's speaker system and pick up the story where I left off...but I'd be listening to the book instead of reading it. How cool would that be?!