Kindle Readers Aren't Snobs

“It's really expensive,” she [Sara Nelson, ex-editor of Publishers Weekly] said of the Kindle 2, which Amazon sells for $359. “If you're going to pay that, you're giving a statement to the world that you like to read - and you're probably not using it to read a mass market paperback.”

What? Kindle readers are too high-minded for mass market paperbacks? Hah! Do Kindle readers have a type? If I had to guess, I'd say they have two shared characteristics: they love to read and they're not afraid of new technology.

What is Nelson saying anyway? Because the Kindle is expensive, you shouldn't read genre fiction on it? You mean like drinking Budweiser out of a champaign flute? As though there's something low-class about mass market paperbacks!

The article went to say when people read on Kindles, you can't see their book titles, so you can't make judgments about what they're reading. It's about time. That's why I sell more copies of The Sex Club on Kindle than anywhere else. People don't have to ask out loud for it or let anyone see their purchase, which readers have admitted was embarrassing for them.

Meanwhile, here's the top 10 selling books on Kindle last week. If they're not mass market paperbacks now, most of them will be in a few months.

1. Long Lost by Harlan Coben
2. New Moon by Stephenie Meyer
3. Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
4. Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer
5. Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer
6. The Help by Kathryn Stockett
7. Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto by Mark R. Levin
8. The Shack by William P. Young
9. Just Take My Heart: A Novel by Mary Higgins Clark
10. Handle with Care: A Novel by Jodi Picoult

Do you own a Kindle? Do you download books for the masses every once in a while?