During my vacation, I enjoyed an eBook called Price of Passion by Susan Napier on my Sony Reader. Why I started this one when I was already in the middle of a paperback and an audiobook is simple: I am not able to focus on the audio unless I’m doing something mechanical, and I didn’t have the paperback with me. My Sony fits nicely into my purse and so when I had a moment where I had nothing else to do, I pulled it out.

Usually, I read writing books when I have those spare moments, but I put books on my Sony for a reason, right? And if I wait until I’m not reading anything else, I’ll never read them. Interestingly, of the three books, the first I finished was the electronic one, both because it was shorter and because it suited my mood at the time, so I kept reading that one even when I wasn’t left at a loose end.

What all this is leading up to is the possibility that I’ve made a transition so that eBooks have become part of my natural cycle of reading rather than something strange I have to think about before I pick one up. However, this led me to think of another aspect to this question of eBook vs. paper that I haven’t seen talked about much.

An eReader is the ultimate brown paper wrapping.

The book I was reading was a Harlequin Romance, perfect for the Christmas season because it’s focused on love, overcoming differences, and coming together into the New Year. I’ve been reading Harlequin long enough to know that not everyone thinks of romance novels in that way. There’s a lot of prejudice against these books (the radical in me says it’s a cultural belief that love by itself doesn’t warrant a book), and there was a level of reading in secret that came from that, if only to avoid the arrogant looks and assumptions. The same was often true about science fiction, fantasy, and horror as well. I had to choose whether I wanted to read my book…or speak out in defense of a whole genre for which there are good and bad books, often with what falls in each category dependant on the reader’s interests rather than the quality of the writing or story.

I’m well over that now. When I read a book, I make no attempt to obscure the title. I’m happy for people to know what I’m reading, happy to share and even encourage them to give the book a try. I can’t count the number of conversations that have started with, “I noticed you were reading…” or “Is that X title?”

So here I am with my maroon Sony, reading my romance novel, and no one knows. I could have been reading Tolstoy, or a men’s adventure, or even Dr. Suess. I could have been reading anything.

Now, I don’t know how many people get turned on to a specific book, or reading in general, because they noticed a cover or title on the subway, but with the proliferation of eBooks, that conversation starter is weakened. People have to be brave enough to ask, “What are you reading?” without the cushion of mentioning something about the book already. Certainly I don’t think it’s cataclysmic, or a reason to avoid eReaders, but it’s still an interesting thought.

Of course now I’m thinking of fun things I could tell them when the cover and title is masked. What obscure texts could I dazzle them with…okay, just the title of? And yet odds are I get more questions about the technology still, without the chance to show off my favorite authors or a book that really caught my fancy anyway.

So what’s the answer? Will the next edition have the option to project the cover for those sitting beside you on the train? Or will the title and author hover in the air above your head, allowing others to know without disturbing your reading at all? Whatever the method, it’ll have to be optional. I can’t imagine sitting in church before mass or a conference before the next meeting starts, with a huge flag over your head saying, “I being introverted over here!”