Both the reading child and diehard post-structuralist in me delight in finding and losing ourselves in the images and animations of imaginary readings of imaginary texts strewn throughout the virtual world of Lord of the Rings. Hardly surprising, as for us, at least, this is an avatar experience, unlike others, born in and reanimating the reading of a very particular set of books.

Can a book be virtual and still be a book? Is the illumination of reading ever as magically bright from the glow of a device? Ever as capable of becoming and enveloping the real if not sparked alone by the physical intimacy of hands and eyes, the body and the page? Can one genuinely cuddle with a Kindle? My avatar has a hard time imagining it.