Belated congratulations to Elizabeth Strout, our guest on Episode 4 of Titlepage.tv. Strout, won for her book Olive Ketteridge, a short story collection set in small-town Maine.

According to The Guardian, judges for the $10,000 prize, awarded to a work of distinguished fiction by an American author, preferably dealing with American life, said that Strout's work "packs a cumulative emotional wallop, bound together by polished prose and by Olive, the title character, blunt, flawed and fascinating".

For another side of Strout, listen to her shy admition of a deep love for poetry while Dan talks to poet Edward Hirsh, "I read a lot of potery. I've always thought very highly of poets and poetry. Always. Really ... I have not written it, I just love it. I just read it". To watch the exchange and listen to Strout discuss her prize-winning book, click on Inside Out.

Dana Jennings, who gamely did an impromptu rendition of The Honkey Tonk Blues in the greenroom, while a guest on Episode 6 of Titlepage, was diagnosed with prostate cancer in early 2008. He's been writing a very raw, and sometimes painfully honest weekly blog about it in the New York Times Science Blog.

Two springs ago, his son Owen's liver failed. Owen too shares his experience in a blog. Both Dana and Owen are also the topic of a Times video.Very touching, very inspirational.

Yesterday's New York Times gave us item #10 of our Kindle Can't Do list. One that we had not thought about...but will strike romantics and operators as an obvious one. No, the Kindle will not provide you with a great pick up line or as Ellen Feldman puts it, it may deprive us of an  "ineffable kinship among book lovers!" No more spotting a cover and sharing that sense that you know something about that person that is deeper than what they appear to be. You know something about their soul....

* For those of us who've carried Kindles out there in the real world, this argument only holds so far. Cause what we have experienced is "Kindle fellowship". The "Oh! another Kindle owner" -- or strangers' avid curiosity about seeing someone holding the "infamous" tablet. It does not compete directly with a cover, a dog or a baby but trust me: it is up there!

** As we end this mini series, one concludes that looking at a new technology with suspicion and sometimes resentment is only natural.

Mark Mapstone, [@markpastone on ] kindly responded to our challenge. He did so in a comment...but it deserves its own post...

I'm up for a challenge: 10 wonderful reasons to embrace digital books.

1: Less materialism

Embracing any digital formats will either consciously or subconsciously change the way we think about, show and share material possessions. Many people know about 'less is more' and often want a minimal lifestyle, but can't actually introduce the changes required to do so. Digital print, whilst initially is a shock to the system, gradually starts this change to an ultimately 'lighter' way of living. Those people that value, showing off their reading achievements by displaying a vast library of books, will still want this understandably, and this 'need' in a digital format, will push forword application development which takes the library from an e-reader to a tv/projector/display, pulling book covers and spine imagery from online locations and presents them accordingly to reflect a traditional bookshelf of bound manuscripts.

2: Portability