I love reading, but libraries and bookstores (save one) depress me. They’re morgues and tombs that prematurely bury the living. The books aren’t dead–just the covers are. But the “new library” offers no books, just access. From Katie McDonough at Salon:

“Some are calling it a ‘bookless’ library, but paperless is a more accurate description of the all-digital public library branch set to open in Texas this fall.

The $1.5 million facility in Bexar County will not house a single printed book, but will offer 100 e-readers on loan, and 10,000 digital titles accessible to readers via their home computers and digital devices, with more being added regularly.

‘If you want to get an idea what it looks like, go into an Apple store,’ Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff, the man behind the digital overhaul, told San Antonio Express News when plans were first announced earlier this year.

Saying goodbye to the printed page may be tough for some to swallow, but remote access to digital files is key to bringing books to the low-income and unincorporated areas of Bexar County currently without library access, says ‘BiblioTech’ project coordinator Laura Cole.”