
Isaac Asimov's letter to the future patrons of a new library - ColinWright
http://www.boingboing.net/2011/06/03/isaac-asimovs-letter.html?dlvrit=36761
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aw3c2
Not related to the content, but perfectionists take note: He misspelled Boys
By.. and simple overwrote the y with o until it looked right. He even crossed
out a word further in. He did not throw away the paper and restarted from
scratch. Yet still he sent this message and now we look at it and praise it 40
years later.

~~~
jrockway
He did correct his mistakes, though. In modern terms, this would be the
equivalent of publishing something without the mistakes, because there is no
time or materials cost associated with correcting misspellings. When Asimov
wrote this letter, though, it would have cost him a sheet of paper to type the
letter without mistakes, and he apparently did not find that a worthwhile
investment.

Note also that none of his books have overwritten words :)

~~~
mturmon
Asimov did all the typing himself (no dictation, no longhand). IIRC he was
proud of his very fast typing skills.

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keiferski
Maybe I'm just a Luddite, but I really don't like reading long-form literature
on a computer or Kindle. Mostly because of the eyestrain, but also because of
the physicality of the book (and the kindle/computer's lack of it).

Still waiting for electronic paper...or something that lets me access the
web's info in a physical, eye-pleasing way. Until then, I'll still be looking
for the deadtree version first.

~~~
awj
How do you consider what the Kindle does different from electronic paper?
Matching the true physical dimensions of paper seems impractical when you no
longer _need_ more than one page.

After about a year on the Kindle, I just finished re-reading a set of novels.
Maybe I just don't find it as important, but the impossibility of losing my
place and inline dictionary beat out any physicality problems.

~~~
keiferski
Well, I don't know much about electronic paper, so I could be mistaken. I was
thinking the ideal would be a physical book-like object whose pages were
changeable.

It's about physically having a book in my hands. The kindle, while more
efficient, just feels awkward. To me, it's the same as reading on a computer,
minus the eye strain. It has no style or substance, like a book; it's just a
piece of plastic/metal.

~~~
Scriptor
I actually had the opposite experience. I have both the electronic version and
the paper version of a very large book. While it is fun in a nostalgic way to
read it from the book, it's really awkward to read it anywhere other than a
table with something to tilt it. The kindle I can take anywhere and be quite
comfortable with it. For example, reading it while lying sideways in bed is a
piece of cake.

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adulau
There is a very good comment: [http://www.boingboing.net/2011/06/03/isaac-
asimovs-letter.ht...](http://www.boingboing.net/2011/06/03/isaac-asimovs-
letter.html#comment-1129525) why you shouldn't close the libraries but just
reinvent them.

~~~
riffraff
It's not so good, in my very humble opinion.

It basically says that the library should survive because it can be a) a free
internet point b) a provider of free online access to stuff c) some things are
better as dead tree format

I come from a small town where we _did not have a bookshop_. If I had not had
the small and crappy town library I would not have become a reader, I was one
of the few users who actually got them to buy stuff _for me_, so please don't
consider me as someone who wouldn't want libraries to survive.

But the above listed reasons are not compelling at best. The second
especially: why couldn't you have a nation-wide public access system? Why is
every library reinventing this?

~~~
adulau
I tend to agree with you. It would be better to have a free access public
access system (something like a minimal tap water access). But IMHO it's more
difficult to setup something from scratch (on the political level) than to
have at least the libraries providing the free access services. By closing
them, we just loose this opportunity.

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olalonde
I wonder what he might have said of the Internet ;)

~~~
brudgers
Recently, after the discussion about making Wikipedia a cultural heritage
site, I began to wonder if Wikipedia is the first step towards Asimov's
_Encyclopedia Galactica_.

[<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encyclopedia_Galactica>]

~~~
minikomi
Or a hitchhiker's guide

