Tom Stoppard’s steampunk Kindle
One of the cool things about Amazon’s Kindle is that you can carry around hundreds of books in a device the size of a single paperback. But what if you’re still wedded to ink on paper (or don’t want to spend $399 for a Kindle) and want a similar level of convenience? One option could be Tom Stoppard’s portable bookcase, which the playwright has hauled around for 30 years. According to The New York Times , the steamship-era case from luggage-maker T. Anthony is “no bigger than a breadbox [and] holds a small shelf of books.” Sure, the case weighs a heck of a lot more than a Kindle, but it’s definitely a conversation starter (imagine pulling it out in a cafe and casually choosing some reading material from your mobile library). And the fact that it doesn’t hold quite as many tomes as its electronic counterpart isn’t necessary a real issue. As Stoppard points out, “If I am on a journey where I only have time to read one-and-a-half books, I never know which one-and-a-half I’ll feel like reading. So I bring eight.” If eight books are enough for a voracious reader like Stoppard, it should work for most other readers as well. Alas, the mobile library is even harder to get than a Kindle; it was discontinued in the 80s, and appears to be completely unavailable on eBay or elsewhere.
