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I miss serendipity. That goes for libraries, too. The new book shelves. The stacks. And another unmourned dinosaur, the card catalogue. Thinking about the last now, I can evoke so many sensations: the physical heft of the drawers, the chunk as you slung it onto a table, the feel of the cards. And yet to think of all the hours and hours it took to maintain.
I also miss the rush. Not only when I discovered a book new to me that was exactly the thing, but I also used to haunt antiquarian bookstores and fairs. Some books were years in the finding. Now? You go to addall or a similar site, see what’s out there (and you see it all), and buy or don’t buy. It’s not the same. Overall, it’s better, but there’s still a loss associated with no longer procuring pbooks in person. I still read pbooks on occasion, courtesy of the real library, when it’s the only way to procure a book at all or it’s not affordable in digital, but I bought my last pbook in 2016.
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