Recently, I've been doing some exploratory searching for replacements of books that I've owned since....actually, I can't remember a time when I didn't own them. I'm not really talking about children's books exactly, because those tend to stay readily available (or at least the good ones do). I'm talking about the entry level science books, or the hobby books that you obsessed over growing up, reading and learning as much as you can, but always coming back to that one book (or two) that made you love the subject in the first place.
Looking back at these now...they're outdated, inaccurate, and falling apart. Dust jackets are missing, the bindings are in tatters, and pages have fallen out. And in some cases, the information inside hasn't fared much better - science has expanded our knowledge beyond what was known when these books were written. They don't get reprinted - there's no market for them anymore. Anyone else would have tossed these or given them away years ago.
I can't even begin to imagine doing something so callous.
