Transcript
BOB GARFIELD:
And now a few of your letters. In our interview with New York Times Magazine columnist Virginia Heffernan, we discussed Japan's souped-up version of the Internet café, what Heffernan calls the media immersion pod.
Sutebia from Seoul, South Korea, wrote on our website that the pods offer more than just media. Quote, "The most interesting aspect is the sleeping rooms where you might stay and sleep or bring a friend and engage in any number of nocturnal activities." Hm. The letter is unspecific, but probably the reference is to shortwave radio or stargazing.
Ron Bean from Wisconsin wrote in after we re-aired a segment about the E-ink technology used in E-readers, devices some think will eventually replace old-fashioned paper. Says Bean, "When I buy a paper book, my ownership of that copy is absolute. The seller can't revoke it or prevent me from reading it or referring back to it in the future. “When you buy an electronic book that has any kind of digital rights management, you're really just renting it. Inevitably, there will be times when your only recourse will be to buy another copy."
Also, regarding our failure to find someone who had read Tolstoy's epic novel War and Peace, D. Douglas of San Francisco was skeptical that the thousand-some pages of War and Peace were the barrier. Quote, "I can't help but wonder how many of the people who say they've never read War and Peace regularly read novels of any kind." Maybe, although most of our novel-loving staff hasn't read it either.
But we do read all of your letters. Keep emailing us at Onthemedia@wnyc.org, or leave comments on our website. Click on the comment icon under each segment at Onthemedia.org.