Reading matters

Thank you, Amazon, you know me well! But the suggestion arrived less than twenty-four hours after I had bought this most promising tome (1,114 pages) from the English-language Munich bookstore, Hugendubel. This is the outlet which will close for good in about six months. And although I have more or less decided that when that day comes I shall migrate to e-books and read them on the Kindle Fire, buying Reamde reminded me of the fact that some books impress by their heft, their feel, their suitability as objects to delight the eye. The paper used to print Neal Stephenson's novel is unusual, the pages are cut with the ragged edges which makes French books so special and it has an unwieldy bulk in my lap as I read it.

And yet cyber.thriller author Stephenson himself would certainly approve of his work being accessed by an e-reader device.

Ah, the irony!