1. I admit, when I first heard that Amazon and OverDrive were collaborating to make Kindle ebooks available through libraries, my very first reaction was to download the Kindle app for iPhone so I could finally check out library books on the go. Free reading on those hour-long bus rides to downtown? Hooray!
2. On the other hand, I’ve spent about ten years working in/around independent bookstores, and I’ve seen firsthand how Amazon has progressively chipped away at the rest of the print book industry. If only I had a dollar for every time I helped a customer locate some book they heard about on NPR, but they couldn’t remember the title or the author, and they think it was something about history—and when I am able to actually find that title and author and often the actual book in a matter of seconds, they look at the price tag and hand the book back and say, “I’ll get it for cheaper on Amazon …”
If I had a dollar, I tell you, for every time that had happened, I still couldn’t afford the fancy French jet that Jeff Bezos reportedly uses to get around.
I could definitely afford to buy this book with those dollars, though.
