Only driven by

Books have algorithms too. The physical aspect of a paper book is its algorithm. The font, paper quality, margins, spacing, and binding determine whether the book can be perused occasionally with difficulty, or kept in a bookholder to read at leisure.

I always read books in a bookholder, usually while eating. With an especially good algorithm, I’m more inclined to sit at the table and enjoy the book itself with a cup of coffee. If the book is snappish or overly shiny or a small unreadable font, I’ll only read it while eating, and won’t stay long if I have to hold the damn pages back with one hand.

Most modern books, like most new media platforms and cars and appliances, have crappy algorithms. They’re on glossy reflective paper, use fancy fonts, don’t lay flat when you want them to. No matter how hard you try to reshape the spine, the book stubbornly wants to snap closed. The pages insist on choosing their own location for you, like Facebook choosing the “relevant” item for you.

A good algorithm, like a good car or appliance, rewards long use. Earlier and more adaptable cars, from Ford T to Willys to Renault, could be fixed or adjusted with simple tools, and became better with use. Modern brittle cars can’t be fixed or adjusted, and don’t change with use. When one major module fails or goes beyond the software update EOL, you have to take the car in to an EPA-authorized repair shop who will replace half of the car at once and charge you twice the original price.

The book analogy popped up after noticing a difference in sourcing of the used books I buy from Abebooks or Alibris. Until a few years ago used book stores bought most books from private individuals. The books were either untouched and snappish, or nearly worn out with missing pages, because most people don’t have the resources to care for books.

More recently the books have come from libraries, probably through a library’s annual surplus book sale. These books have been carefully maintained, sometimes even rebound (re-algorithmed). They are nearly always usable because libraries know how to shape an algorithm toward usability.

The ex-library books were only driven by a little old lady librarian. The ex-private books were either in cold storage or hotrodded into oblivion.

Why the change in source? Possibly because more people value physical books now? Part of the return to analog, part of the Foy Rebellion?