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Today’s xkcd makes a point that may relate to the constant griping about e-books from some old-time bibliophiles. It involves a stick-figure with a shelf full of completely blank books, who insists that the words don’t matter because the sheer act of holding a book “prompts [his] mind to enrich itself.” The last panel of the strip is brilliant, but I refuse to spoil it. Go read it for yourself.

Though e-books are never mentioned, it’s easy to see this as the logical extension of the arguments paper book lovers advance as to why paper books are awesome and e-books stink. If everything except form factor is the same, and you eliminate everything that’s the same in comparing one form over the other, then what’s left over must be the awesome part: a book full of blank paper.

The alt-text secondary punchline compares this idea to homeopathic medicine, which seems about right. If just the act of taking an empty pill can make you better, then the act of holding a blank paper book can tell you a story. Now that we know the secret, perhaps we can more easily keep paper book lovers happy after the rest of us are reading electronically.

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