No, books are for tools. Grown ups get their knowledge from movies, television and your oh so very friendly newspapers (most of which are owned by one or two people).
The good thing about books though is that, there's a lot of information in them that people never bothered to put on the internet (atleast not somewhere it can be g00gl'd
).
I had a theory that people touch documents without gloves because, due to the significant volume of such things in places like England, they tend to be less careful of individual things. Because there's so much of it, none of it matters anymore. If it were just one or two, then it'd be touched only with robotic hands who are wearing gloves.
That would explain why so many beautiful castles in England are left to rot. Not only does nobody want to spend money to fix them up (and by fix them up I don't mean adding new bricks which are completely different to the original bricks so that 'future' people will know the old from new), but the number of buildings makes them appear unappealing and insignificant.
There are some really stupid conservation laws in England, preventing anybody who does fix an old building from doing it properly too. Like, for example, not restoring the building with the correct materials due to some fantasy that people in the future will know or care what is original and what is 21st century.
In 100 years, it won't matter. I say restore them as they should.
