Okay, folks, I think it's "deep breath" time. It's become clear in the last several posts that there's a fair amount of misunderstanding going on here, mostly in the various readers (and I don't mean devices) perceiving what was written more strongly than was actually meant.
Setting all that aside, there are some really good points buried in all that chaff.
I think it's pretty clearly established that different people place differing importance in the packaging of whatever it is that "books" really are. That's not especially surprising, of course.
It's also pretty clear that it's perfectly okay for different folks to hold those differing opinions: a person's subjective view of a subjective matter is in no way invalidated by that view not being universally held.
However, the variety of views on the subject are interesting and at times enlightening to those who have the interest in examining them (which of course we all do here, or we wouldn't be reading them, right?
). So let's take a moment and consider the possibility that no offense was meant in the first place on any side, and that while comments, examples and analogies may come across as stronger than was intended, they probably weren't actually chosen with the intent to insult anyone.
Then we can get back to a good discussion of the topic at hand.
