Quote:
Originally Posted by Quoth
Perhaps over 10,000 not read in the modern era that are in museums.
Much papyrus was used to light fires. Paper writing deliberately burnt in ancient China. The animal skins later used in Europe kept well. Paper didn't.
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True, but keep in mind that formats change. Amazon has changed their formats at least twice in the last ten years. This is why I am so grateful to Kovid for Calibre. My books are
mine. I will download them, strip the DRM from them if necessary, and keep them on my own media so I, not Amazon, not Barnes and Noble, not anyone but the man in the mirror, have total control of them.
I read an interesting article once where a parent was asking what to do with a digital letter that had been written by their father to his grandchild. The parent was asked not to read the file, but he was concerned about format changing making it unreadable before his child grew old enough to read it. (Indeed, it was about ten years ago that I read the article and the letter was saved to a
floppy disk.) The person who wrote the article suggested printing it on acid-free paper and having it stored in a safety deposit box. I have to admit that I agreed with that decision.
Formats change and paper, under the right conditions, lasts longer than eBooks stored under the wrong ones. But I do agree with your point that pagination is a better method of delivery than scrolling.