Second-hand surprises

If anyone has watched Stephen Fry's 'Gadget Man' on Channel 4, you will be fully aware that technology will eventually render humans pointless. And pretty stupid, too. Talking of stupid, for a long time now I've been very upset about the invasion of the Kindle. I do own one - but it's at the bottom of my book pile, underneath physical books that require the turning of pages.

Last night I was reading 'What I talk about when I talk about running' by Haruki Murakami. As I manually turned the page I came across this stuck to it:

The best thing about it (apart from the drawing) is the word 'transient'. I picked this book up in a Buddhism charity shop, and you may know that 'transient' is a well-used word in Buddhism. It excited me to know that not only had this book been read by others, but that it was passed on to someone with the hope that they'd like it, too.

It's things like this that really make me dread the inevitable extinction of books. How can a Kindle ever compare?