I grew up with an uneven and highly catholic taste in books largely because I read what my mom read and had around in the "penthouse suite" (sole room on the terrace). Sidney Sheldon battled with Alex Haley and Alexander Solzhenitsyn for supremacy and my Lit professors were convinced that I had not developed sufficient discrimation as a result.
My kid will most certainly face the limitations of his parents' reading habits. But what I hope he would do is step outside the box sooner or later on his own. I don't think giving him a Kindle will promote either his sense of initiative or his habit of reading merely by giving more choices anymore than a library would give.
