Aaron’s Reviews > So Many Books: Reading and Publishing in an Age of Abundance > Status Update

"the book as commercial product did away with the book as sacred object. But did it really? ... To have at home and at hand what once could only be viewed in the temple is a great boon for demand, because books embody all the prestige of the temple. Democratic desacralization flourishes like simony: it allows the selling of something priceless. It doesn’t do away with sacred books; it causes them to multiply."