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.