This is the saddest thing I've ever read...

http://freerangelibrarian.com/2010/11/20/scilkenslaw/

Physical books will go away eventually because they won’t be economically viable to print in smaller numbers. Economically disadvantaged communities, without the “cushion” of advanced libraries with Internet Kiosks, public meeting spaces and other rich-folk goodies will be faced with less books, and eventually a realization that they’re maintaining an increasingly empty building. It may take a long time, but it will happen. And those “poor” libraries will close, while the “rich” ones thrive and diversify.

The public library is built around the book-lending model, and only luxury-home communities will want to justify public libraries on the scale we knew them in the 20th century, as a kind of trompe l’oeil to underscore their cultural creds. The other communities? They will fund police, fire, and the town square. Those humongous edifices filled largely with paper-based anachronisms may not be torn down anytime soon (though I’m sure ebook providers lick their chops over the idea of monopolistic control of consumption), but the service providers–we library workers–will be reduced to skeleton crews.

Strom Children Memories

Book One

Book Two

Paul McAuley's reading list

Bold = I've Read
Italics = I will read soon

• Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus MARY SHELLEY 1818
• Journey to the Centre of the Earth JULES VERNE 1863 (waiting for a real translation)
• After London RICHARD JEFFRIES 1885
• The Time Machine HG WELLS 1895
• The House on the Borderland WILLIAM HOPE HODGSON 1912 (I have read John C. Wright's pastiches - does that count?)
• We YEVGENY ZAMIATIN 1924
• Brave New World ALDOUS HUXLEY 1932
• Star Maker OLAF STAPLEDON 1937
• 1984 GEORGE ORWELL 1949
• I, Robot, ISAAC ASIMOV 1950
• The Martian Chronicles RAY BRADBURY 1950
• The Dying Earth JACK VANCE 1950
• Childhood’s End ARTHUR C CLARKE 1953
• The Space Merchants CM KORNBLUTH & FREDERIK POHL 1953
• Tiger! Tiger! ALFRED BESTER 1956
• The Death of Grass JOHN CHRISTOPHER 1956
• The Seedling Stars JAMES BLISH 1957 (I've read "Surface Tension")
• The Midwich Cuckoos JOHN WYNDHAM 1957 (seen the movie)
• Starship Troopers ROBERT A HEINLEIN 1959
• A Canticle for Liebowitz WALTER M MILLER JR 1959
• Solaris STANSLAW LEM 1961 (seen the Soviet movie - I know it doesn't count)
• Hothouse BRIAN ALDISS 1962
• A Clockwork Orange ANTONY BURGESS 1962
• Cat’s Cradle KURT VONNEGUT JR 1963
• Martian Time-Slip PHILIP K DICK 1964
• Dune FRANK HERBERT 1965
• The Crystal World JG BALLARD 1966
• Flowers For Algernon DANIEL KEYES 1966
• Lord of Light ROGER ZELAZNY 1967
• Nova SAMUEL R DELANY 1968
• Pavane KEITH ROBERTS 1968
• The Left Hand of Darkness URSULA K LE GUIN 1969
• Roadside Picnic ARKADY AND BORIS STRUGATSKI 1969
• 334 THOMAS M DISCH 1972
• Dying Inside ROBERT SILVERBERG 1972
• The Fifth Head of Cerberus GENE WOLFE 1972
• Ten Thousand Light Years From Home JAMES TIPTREE JR 1973
• The Forever War JOE HALDEMAN 1974
• Inverted World CHRISTOPHER PRIEST 1974
• The Female Man JOANNA RUSS 1975
• Arslan MJ ENGH 1976
• The Ophiuchi Hotline JOHN VARLEY 1977
• The Final Programme MICHAEL MOORCOCK 1968
• Kindred OCTAVIA BUTLER 1979
• Engine Summer JOHN CROWLEY 1979
• Timescape GREGORY BENFORD 1980
• Neuromancer WILLIAM GIBSON 1984
• Divine Endurance GWYNETH JONES 1984

Getting started

Just a placeholder as I add my voice to the cacophony.