Reddit reviews A Gentle Madness: Bibliophiles, Bibliomanes, and the Eternal Passion for Books

Think of all the books in all the hard to reach places that are going to disappear or get stolen or destroyed. Google had the time and the money to take this on, plus they had the goodwill of big name places and people giving their collections to Google to digitize, so their was/were less holdouts, for the big time Universities and Collectors from holding out.

As u/zerling_Lester mentioned, the perfect is often the enemy of the good. As with the Google Arts & Culture, people started thinking about the $$ and they shut down an amazing opportunity for humanity.

This digitizing project could and should have been one of the most celebrated and supported projects of all time. Physical items are 1 fire or theft away from forever being lost. Think of the recent fire at the Brazilian national Museum,

For those of you who love books and unusual or rare books I have some book recommendations.

1. For The Love Of Books: A collection of more than one hundred original essays from writers ranging from Dave Barry to Robert Bly, from Nadine Gortimer to Anna Quindlen, offers unique reflections on literature and life as they discuss books that have most influenced them.
   
   
2. A Gentle Madness: Bibliophiles, Bibliomanes, and the Eternal Passion for Books: Which is a personal favorite of mine, it is a story about rare books, book stealing and Libraries. It is a really wonderful book, as is its sorta follow up Among The Gently Mad, which is also an enthralling read.
   
   
3. Anne Bogle: I'd Rather Be Reading: The Delights and Dilemmas of the Reading Life she has a really good podcast about books as well.
   
   I wish that we could get our shit together as a species, come together and preserve all of our shared history and knowledge, before they are lost to time, theft, or worse.