Google in a Box

At yesterday's estate sale I walked right past the Log Cabin Syrup tin, the plastic Mary Kay pouches, and the mitre saw, and headed straight toward the boxes of books.  One such box was filled with reference materials including The Standard Dictionary of Facts. Say what?!  A whole entire BOOK of FACTS?!  It was like finding Google in a Box!  My how far we have come.  Even though it is nice to be able to search online without having to pick mud dauber clumps off of pages it is just a tad sad to think that books such as the ones above are relegated to cardboard boxes at estate sales.  Maybe I'm "old school" but I can still flip through a dictionary and find what I'm looking for faster than I can if I go upstairs, turn on the computer and log in.  While I have one hand firmly holding a book, the other hand has been known to upload ebooks.  I've been trying out the ikindle app on my itouch and must admit that it is quite convenient to have a "shelf" full of books with me at all times.  But I do miss the physicality of actually holding a book, turning the pages, and, yes, smelling it.  While I vow to keep up with all of the technological advances that present themselves, I vow also to cherish my "real" books.  They are like friends to me and bring back wonderful memories everytime I see them.  Being able to read ebooks has made me a little more selective in which books I choose to purchase as hard copies and that is a good thing as there is very little wall or floor space left in my house for more tomes.  In case you were wondering, I did not purchase The Standard Dictionary of Facts, the main reason being it had mildew all inside and along the edge of every page....something I haven't had to deal with when searching Google lately.