Giò: When I was 22 years old my greatest sources of entertainment and pleasure on my days off from work were books and cinema. On my first day off of every week I would make the delightful walk across Central Park to the Lincoln Square Barnes&Noble as soon as they opened, buy a coffee or a smoothie in the cafe and sit down at the counter with a pile of books (without said beverage I would not be allowed to have such a coveted seat). Around closing time I would be finishing up the last book in the pile. One night, after finishing this ritual, I proceeded to walk downstairs on my way to leaving the bookstore to find that while I spent the day reading upstairs, the bottom floor had been converted into a movie set for a picture directed by Alec Baldwin which I believe was "The Devil and Daniel Webster". He was pulling double duty as director and actor. I stuck around just to watch him work. I spent the second of my days off every week watching two to six pictures at the movie theaters, both megaplexes and art houses. Literature and the moving image are quite a combination and the future you suggest as it pertains to both media is quite interesting. Amazing; your suggestion that the mom pop bookstores may outlast the chains. You might be right. That Barnes&Noble I used to haunt has since closed. Meanwhile, I suppose smaller bookstores that cater to a more specific audience of book lovers just might remain relevant. I hope so. Since you bring up Roger, I hung out with him one week in Bolder, Colorado and while perusing a local bookstore together, being a New Yorker, he suggested I read "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay", itself a great book not just about New York City, World War II, and magic, but also about the relationship between graphic novels and cinema.
Jana Monji: Roger was one of those people who could make a suggestion and open a door so you could begin a wonderful journey that you didn't even know you wanted to make. While I knew I wanted to visit Buenos Aires, I wouldn't have known about El Ateneo if not for another book lover named Roger Ebert. The love of books is part of what is behind Comic-Cons.