touch of doom and gloom and melodrama methinks Rob - actually sounds very daily mailish :p
Plato complained of many the same things as you do -especially about the younger generation lol
and yet here we are
with ever expanding in breadth, depth and quantity and quality of non fiction (and fiction) available
both in tree form and thankfully electronically.
Not only current books but also older and even ancient ones that the normal man in the street would never normally have access to! and certainly not at the time of publishing - i wonder if even Neville would have been able to read or even handle a book in medieval times? let alone have the library he has now - which i dare say probably exceeds the sum total of books available in the whole country then.

Not to mention the global access of all the smaller more locally specific stuff that was once only the preserve of a few “geeks” and vanity publishers?- the stuff that is so helpful in the research of people frequenting sites such as this. Just as once a known family tree was once only the preserve of the “nobs” - how many “joe blogges” are enjoying the delights of real history now? How many more now have the ability not only to access them but to publish them too? and real gems amongst the increased dross too! and how many yawned their way through school coming out with little or no knowledge and even less interest and would probably have laughed at any suggestion they would have any interest in the subjects - let alone the minutiae

i know i often will end up with 20 or more open tabs from following links or phrases - and often end up miles from the original subject - which explains why i cannot remember what triggered my interest in quantum physics (possibly a bdsm site lol) started on the web spilled over into tree books - and when i am able again to mentally and physically cope i have a few waiting, including the delightfully titled collapse of chaos theory

chin up duck - the situation isn’t as black as you see it
not to my eyes anyway

Regards
Rod

I stumbled on your site after looking for a first edition Harry Potter on eBay. Very interesting reading and I learned a lot, thankfully before purchasing a “First Edition” reprint! So thank you.

I thought I’d ask this since it appears you are very familiar with books. My nephew is graduating high school next week and is enthralled with Beowulf (the Gummere translation) and Nordic mythology. He’s mentioned he’d like to start collecting the Eddas, beginning with the Poetic. He also mentioned he’d love a copy of Beowulf that has the old English on one side and the translation on the other. I did some google work but not sure the best Edda translation to buy and didn’t immediately find the duel translation option. Do you happen to know about these and could provide any suggestions as to where to purchase and which translations?

I appreciate your insight.

Best
Rod

Yes, perhaps I didn’t elaborate enough on that point. Searching for a single word is quick but looking for images or a topic, chapter-wise, and depending on the format, going to a page via the search box can be a bit erratic as sometimes the preface and introduction pages are included in the search.
In a physical book pages can be flicked through quite rapidly and the human brain is pretty good at narrowing a search to a specific. Swings and roundabouts really

Regards,
Neville

That said how long before they’re pirated and available free ?
After all I remember the security protected DVDs for movi9ies and software that nobody would be able to copy

I’m sure some people will still maintain an interest Craig but I wonder whether that will be enough to sustain thinigs like local bookshops ?

Cheers
Rod

I think they’ll always be people who collect paper books, just as there are collectors of vinyl, simply because digital versions don’t have the same ambiance.

I think we’ll see non-fiction fade, other than autobographies of 19 year old celebrities and the like, fiction I hope and believe will still hang in there albeit less popular.

It will be interesting to see what a new generation of people think aboput collectable first editions in the future - that’s the area that really interests me personally.

You still can’t beat a nice book such as your 1696 vol
Cheers
Rod

It depends entirely on the point of view being taken, as to whether it is a good thing or not. If you are a second-hand book dealer or collector for aesthetic reasons, then obviously it is a bad thing. If you just want to use ‘books’ as an information or entertainment resource, then it might be considered a good thing as the books are certainly more portable, ( I should know, having recently lowered single-handed my entire Lincolnshire library out of the loft!); and they don’t deteriorate with time due to the ravages of varying humidity, insect attack, foxing and handling.

The case for real books is made by their being easier to read, easier to search and in some cases cherished objects both as objects of beauty and on a personal level, can have sentimental value. Something that is of importance to me in relation to old books is their smell! My favourite ’smelly old book’ is my copy of ‘Kings and Queens of England’ by Sir Richard Baker, 1696. Sniff that and you are THERE!

My Lincolnshire library in physical books consists of 106 volumes plus various periodicals pamphlets and other documents. My digital Lincolnshire library currently stands at 134 volumes to which can be added a further 174 which might be considered General English/British history books but which overlap to some degree as they contain material and references to Lincolnshire to varying extents.

Finally, just for the record, my current map library is approaching 650 of which 243 are of Lincolnshire.

One thing is for certain, there will always be room for physical books, until they wear out and then they will probably all be conserved in national libraries. As with most thing the bulk will have to move with ‘ ?progress? ‘.

Regards,
Neville the Bookworm