e-readers: brown paper bag for romance novels

We know the market for romance novels is huge. But do you ever see anyone reading them in public? The New York Times explains why e-readers have given romance novels an expanded market:

Sarah Wendell, blogger and co-author of “Beyond Heaving Bosoms,” is passionate about romance novels.

Except for the covers, with their images of sinewy limbs, flowing, Fabio-esque locks or, as she put it, “the mullets and the man chests.”
...
“It’s easier to check out some naughty little title online than in a brick-and-mortar store where your pastor could step up in line behind you,” said Barb Perfetti, the chief financial officer of All Romance. “We’ve had lots of customers write to us and say, ‘Now I don’t always have to show my husband what I’m reading.’

So where does this place the signaling value of carrying a copy of a brainy book? What do I infer about you? There were always two possible interpretations. That you were an intellectual or that you a pompous ass carrying it merely for effect.