Moral idiots can be useful irritants, so maybe the Florida pastor who wants to burn Korans isn't all bad. He got me thinking about the great shift to e-books. That technology may finally end the long tragic history of book burning, from the library of Alexandria to the Nazi pyres....

In a bank vault in staid Zurich an episode of high literary drama unfolded recently. A safety deposit box was opened and inside was revealed a handwritten manuscript of a story by Franz Kafka. At that same moment, an Israeli woman named Eve Hoffe ran into the bank building seeking...