[Or Look At it This Way] Kindle Spares You Shallow Chat Ups

I will admit at the outset that I am a devoted e-book reader- I have a Kindle, but mostly use the Kindle app on my iPhone and have shunned paper and ink books since my very first Kindle Edition.

That said, people decide on whether they should lay the mack on someone on the subway based on their reading choices? Doing it wrong. Intellectual compatibility is very important, but an otherwise attractive and fancy-smelling person can be reading a dodgy book for any number of reasons. The fact that other riders could be judging me by my choice of embarrassing vampire romance novel is worrying- so it’s probably good that I rely solely on my iPhone e-reader. Maybe they think I’m doing something more highbrow and respectable, like playing Bejeweled.

The notion Kindles are putting a dint in the subway-based dating scene comes courtesy of the New York Times. The writer, Lisa Lewis- in her not at all dramatically titled piece How E-Readers Destroyed My Love Life, bemoans these awesome devices because she cannot judge a prospect by his choice of reading material:

I had one good pickup line, and e-readers ruined it. I can no longer hit on a handsome man on a long commute by asking about his book — because I can’t see it. Gone are the days when, sitting on a train delayed in the station, I could imagine exactly where in the New York Public Library we would first kiss — in the stacks between Mailer and Malamud or Foer and Franzen? E-books may be saving literature, but my dating life has suffered.

So, you spot Dreamy McHotterson on the G Train. He smells like jet fighters and punching. He’s enlightened enough to not only invest more than $100 in reading, but he loads up his device and brings it with him to work. And the Kindle isn’t enough to “hey, baby” him? An opener raving about battery life? Lauding the newfound lightness of your work bag? Complaining about a hot new release that costs more than the hardcover for the Kindle edition?

I suppose paper books could serve as a shibboleth for all the luddites- do you judge hotness based on reading material and/or format?

[via Gawker]