Will Amazon Lead Us to the Golden Age of Books? A Future Tense Event Recap.

The unfortunate Fire Phone aside, the glut of opinion pieces and blog posts about Amazon of late have really been about one thing: books. So, is Amazon really as bad for book culture as we fear, or could the company of "1-click" sales, Kindles, and two-day shipping in fact be leading us to a golden age? A Future Tense conversation that included voices from bookselling and publishing, authors and readers, moderated by Nicholas Thompson, the editor of the NewYorker.com, tackled this question in New York on Wednesday evening. (Future Tense is a partnership of Slate, New America, and Arizona State University.)