I think I may have just been slapped in the face. I’m not certain about the actual location of the hit, but I’m still sort-of stinging from a customer’s question today.
She wondered what I knew about the Look, her new electronic book reader.
“The Nook, you mean,” I answered.
“No,” she replied. “It’s a Lookbook. Do you have wi-fi here?”
I felt like I had been drawn into some sort of science fiction time warp. Here I am with my stacks and stacks of books – those old paper ones – on shelves, perfectly content in my work-a-day world, when I am suddenly barraged by this techno-robotic-electronic invasion.
“Lookbook?” I asked, thinking she must be mistaking the name of her device. I was at the laptop, and sure enough after a quick Google, I learned there is some other morphed product that stores books in a plastic-cased battery-operated device. Look. The Lookbook.
I found it listed as available at Walmart and CVS Pharmacies. Color!
150 Free Books!
Wireless book reader.
“Do you have wi-fi?” she asked again. “I was at Panera Bread and I couldn’t get the connection to work at all.”
“Why do you need wi-fi to read your Lookbook?” I asked. “I thought the books were stored on the device.”
“I was trying to download more of my free books,” she said. “I don’t have wi-fi at home.”
Ahhhhhhh. Now I see. She needed a wireless internet connection, since the Look has no cable-connect ability. She was out scouring the town for an internet wi-fi hotspot that would let her download, and came to – naturally, I suppose – the book store.
She was hoping that I had wireless internet so she could use my connection to download free books onto her electronic reader.
Slap!
Ouch. That smarts.
Not only did she not want to buy a book, she wanted to use my internet to collect her free electronic books. I kept smiling.
“No,” I said, finally. “Sorry.”
After she left I was thinking about wi-fi and remembered I had a hi-fi stereo once. Traded it for an 8-track.