The day I picked the Internet over a book

Today I popped into a charity shop here in Oxford to check out the books. I found one on English castles for only a pound. It was a gazetteer of most or all the castles in England with short descriptions of each plus black and white photographs. A basic popular level coverage printed in the Eighties.

Not the best volume on the subject, but hey, it was only a pound! Then I paused. I could find all this info on the Internet at sites such as Castles of Britain, with color photos and links to the visitor centers of any that are open to the public. Then I thought about my critical lack of shelf space.

So I didn't buy it. This is the first time I consciously did not buy a book because of the Internet. A new trend? Frightening.


Image of Bowes Castle courtesy Darren Haddock via Wikimedia Commons.