I've been wanting to read a political history concerning Napoleon Bonaparte. A five minute search turned up a promising book by Steven Englund, Napoleon: A Political History. Some three or four clicks later I bought it. It cost under $10.
About three days later, it arrived in the mail from the Jacksonville Public Library, which had sold it in order to raise money to purchase new books. Turns out, it was exactly what I was looking for, and exquisitely written besides.
Contrast that with an intentional book search I did about 15 years ago. I had not been able to find Spiritus Creator by the Danish theologian, Regin Prenter, published around 1950. A local used-book store managed to find a copy which would (and did) cost me $55. I had it in about three weeks.
It also turned out that, within two weeks of receiving Spiritus Creator, I happened to mention to a colleague that I'd finally found one for $55. He said, "You should have said something. I'd have given you my copy. In fact, here it is. Take it." So then I had two copies of Spiritus Creator, one for $55 and one for free.
Not very long ago, it took considerable effort to find the books you were after, and then another considerable effort to get them. Now, it's five clicks and three days.
The Internet is great when you know exactly what you're searching for. But it doesn't let you browse the merchandise comfortably, so that you can find something good you might not have been looking for. The last new-and-used bookstore in my immediate area just closed down. I will miss it....
Posted by: Hypatia | September 05, 2013 at 03:35 PM