New relationships with digital books
adamsolove.com
adamsolove.com
http://lesswrong.com/lw/k5/cached_thoughts/
Another point I wish the article had addresses is that we used to communicate more often in allusions because it was more likely that other people had read the same books we had, when there were far fewer books in existence and more consensus about which we're expected to read.
While it's dangerous to memorize precise answers, as your comment shows there are many good habits of thought worth remembering. They don't provide an answer, but they lead us to think about the question in a new way. A lot of faerie takes have that quality, where there isn't a clear moral but you learn something anyway.
And sometimes they are helpful even if irrational. Certainly that is the case when you are looking for consolation or hope in a bad situation.
Next, many of us still communicate in allusions, just to a new canon made up of The Simpsons, internet videos, or pg essays. Every community has its canon, it's just a question of how we will learn to share it. Online communities like HN have done a very good job of creating this idea of a body of writing that the community is expected to know, and this is only going to get more popular (and the communities more specialized) over time.
I wrote this because I think there hasn't been enough discussion of why digital books can make a difference, and why consumers should pay for what is just plain text, when they perhaps already own print copies.
In the long term, digital books are going to be way different from glossy iPad apps or Kindle books. They're going to lead to a whole new/old way of reading.