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You know the panicky, paranoid manner in which the Tea Partiers appear to cling to their guns and religion, as if someone really were trying to take them away? For some of us, the same condition of ongoing nerves regarding the encroaching powers of the State comes instead from a V for Vendetta- or Fahrenheit 451-type terror of the State coming after our books. Various States have indeed come after all of these assets, from time to time, so it’s not like any of us is entirely making this stuff up. At this very moment they don’t let Chinese people or Cubans or Belarusians or many, many others all over this world read whatever they want, watch whatever movies they want, or have all the guns and/or religion they want. READ MORE

On Monday Choire discussed Nicholson Baker's New Yorker piece about the Kindle. I finally got around to reading the thing last night, and while I am in no way qualified to address the merits of his argument (I'm enough of a Luddite that I only broke down and bought a cellphone in 2006) I will say this: I need to use the word "spinnakered" more often in my writing. Also "pheromonal."

There is a new Kindle reader. It is larger than the previous one. It will cost $489. You can pre-order it now (sorry, "reserve your place on line"), although it won't be available until summer. Will it save the newspaper industry? Too soon to tell. But so far it has certainly done wonders for the liveblogging the new Kindle press conference industry.