A Whisper in the Night

[ecosophia]

Buy physical books now. Great ones, good ones, bad ones, ones you happen to like. Store them safely as you would treasures. They are. Some will become unavailable soon, I suspect, for reasons that may not be stated candidly. If I’m wrong, what have you lost?

We, the library

— Walter Kirn (@walterkirn) February 12, 2021

This seems uncomfortably appropriate to me just now...

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

This is such a coincidence--I have been thinking about this for the last two days. I am against hoarding, except when it comes to books, which I do hoard. I'd be curious about your thoughts on the "reasons not stated candidly". Here is a partial list from my Long Descent-influenced thinking:

* Public library closures/budget cuts
* Woke purgings & author cancellations
* Closure of small presses and bookstores in the next depression period
* Over-reliance on printing in China and other far-abroad places
* Disappearance of free online depositories during the long descent
* Contraction of the higher education industry
* Lack of low-tech, low-energy storage facilities to guard against humidity
* Fragile paper, ink, and printing equipment supply chains

A lot of these are happening now! Am I missing anything from your vantage point as an author?

Samurai_47

[ecosophia]

The one thing I'd add is wholesale deletion of resources from ebook venues, making print copies that much more necessary.