Amazon.com plans to buy Audible Inc. in an all-cash purchase for about $300 million. Darn it. I WISH APPLE HAD DONE THIS. Since the two companies compete with each other in one of Apple’s most critical businesses — downloadable music — I think there’s a good chance one or both of these companies will kill the cozy relationship Apple had with Audible.

Meanwhile, Amazon’s Kindle is a awful player for audio books. It’s way too big for a pocket. It’s awkward even to carry around. More importantly, only Apple is in a position to reverse the civilization-killing decline of literary interest among young folks — the “Twilight of the Books,” as The New Yorker called it. Imagine whether Apple promoted audio books as heavily as it does TV shows and music?