"Don’t get the shorts in the picture!.... If that leaked to Europe, I wouldn’t get any sales there!"

Said Gary Shteyngart, author of  "Super Sad True Love Story."

In the near future world of Super Sad True Love Story, books are called “media artifacts” and are regarded as too smelly to own.

When I ask Gary if he is really as pessimistic about the future of books as all that, he proclaims, “Over!  So over! Oh my god.”   When I point out that there will always be bookish types such as ourselves, he counters, “How many of us will remain?  Will there be 3 million of us?  Will there be 300,000 of us?  Will there be 30,000 of us?  How much will it take for me to sustain a living doing what I do best, well, doing the only thing I know how to do?  Well, actually, I don’t even know how to read.”

... According to Shteyngart, the bookless future is going to be very “slutty,” which is what he likes about it.  It’s going to be great, with see-through jeans, and he can’t wait.