Have kept all of my "real" books. Have a brother who is an English professor in CA and he tells me to get rid of them, if I want to re-read them, just pull them up on line.

I have seen too many changes on line in the books that I truly enjoy - Heinlein's "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" comes immediately to mind - so I still have my wall of books.
The Harvard Classics five foot shelf of books has all of one shelf, but the other several shelves have all of the Asimov, Heinlein et al and of course the ligher stuff, like Douglas Adams - I have all 5 of his books in the trilogy in leather covers.
It is great stuff to use get away from the insanity of current life - reading about insanity from someone else's life! A great story.
Bottom line would be my recommendation is to hang onto your real books.

I want to find anyone in the Gulch near Elyria, Ohio, just to talk with another human being who thinks. My daughter is an Ayn Rand enthusiast as well. if possible, some time soon the Gulchers should have a get together for book and idea exchanges.

If we were neighbors we could have a book exchange to read more!
My collection is smaller, but has many titles from the masters of science fiction and freedom/Austrian economics.

Yep! With you, katrinam41!

We have an early 20th century Aladdin as well. Beautiful lamp! Many years ago we had dinner at an Amish restaurant (Yoder's I believe) near Mesopotamia, Ohio. Excellent food and service!

There are treasure troves of accurate history out there that might never be breached.
It's kinda like how one might view the Books of Enoch.

The Aladdin lamp, using a cylindrical wick and a mantle, gives off excellent white light. I have one, a Number 8 model. Unfortunately (?) the power is never off long enough for us to need it. Aladdin lamps, along with all the replacement parts and the lamp oil, are available from Lehman Hardware in Kidron, Ohio. They are popular (as you might imagine) among the Old Order Amish.

Hold On. I believe this was because of a Court Action. The courts basically said, you MUST CONSUME the books to use their content.

I don't recall the full details. But if they could BORROW, RENT, or BUY and then SELL the books back, it wasn't fair to the authors, etc. because the computers have perfect memory. I also believe it PREVENTS them from taking BOOK X, and offering it to another AI company, etc. etc. etc. Meaning the copyright is real.

The argument was basically that a human is SUPPOSED to READ and KNOW the content. That's all we are doing. The courts demanded them to destroy the books so that every company training on them, have to seek, purchase the information.

NOW... If that's part of a deep start conspiracy to burn/destroy old books, and they used the Judges to do this... IDK.

When Google Originally did this, they did not destroy the books. But I am for digitizing everything.
I am not for destroying Irreplaceable books.

We're trying.:)

But "buying up" books is still free market capitalism.

We may not like where they're going, but if someone wants to stop it, they'll have to buy them up, instead.

Great book! So was the movie I saw later both as a young man.
Don't have either but the impressions made on me thedino are permanent.

Also in my collection, along with more Bradbury, Heinlein, Clarke, Azimov, Brinn, Niven, EE doc Smith, many more. My daughter, now living with me, has an equally extensive collection. We need a bigger book wall.

No problem. Sounds like you have a great library as well. My library started with buying contemporary books years ago. Then started adding vintage books as my wife and I both like 19th century decor for the house and real books of the period are a great addition. I soon discovered the information and unedited and unsanitized stories between the covers is priceless as well as entertaining. Try passing a late 19th century pre-college math or English exam - ouch, I got an education.

Side note: To give an idea of how much we enjoy vintage historical ambiance we've held "candle light dinners" with guests where all electric things are turned off and put away and lighting is done with candles and oil lamp using original 19th century lamps and candle holders. They really come in handy during power failures, too, and we've cooked meals in the fireplace. Hint: If you want to do this make sure you use lamp oil rather than kerosene to avoid much of the odor.

katrina's post reminds me of another story.

"Fahrenheit 451", sometimes "The Firemen"
written by US writer Ray Bradbury.

The story takes place here but in the future-
Books have been banned as people are offended by them.
If a house is found with a book in it, the house is burned down -by the Firemen, a government agency.
A group of dissidents have formed and live in an isolated settlement, each one of them has volunteered to memorize a whole book. One person does the New Testament, another Robinson Crusoe, another Peter Pan, various take on the works of Homer and Adam Smith, Darwin and Dickens, and more.
War starts, ends, the city has been destroyed.
The book people have survived, they take on the task of re-building, and printing books.

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Fahr...
etc

My apologies, mccannon. You have the correct book. It is Lucifer's Hammer, and I have it in my collection. The Postman was another world falls apart novel, which I also have. My books include some first editions from the 1800's and 1900's, a number of texts on anatomy, geology, archeology, history, poetry (everything from Dickinson to Service), some hardbound, some paperback. Your collection sounds wonderful, especially anything that can be considered as accurate within the time period it was printed.

I recall the same method of hiding books in a novel titled "Lucifer's Hammer". Good story I read a very long time ago. Things are getting erased so I save old books, too. I have a book published/printed in the 1890s titled "Military Heroes of The United States", which includes a chapter on Robert E. Lee and a chapter on Stonewall Jackson. This is well within living memory of the Civil War. That would never happen today.

Thanks, ffa. I keep collecting older books for my library (even have little black sambo), because the printed word doesn't change its spots unless it's reprinted. My books cover a lot of ground and I love the feel of turning pages as I progress through that story or that theory or that history. This article reminds me of a book, The Postman, in which one of the main characters hides his most important books in his septic tank for later retrieval. The day may come...

Good article, k. 👍
Here's another post on this topic.
https://www.galtsgulchonline.com/post...