Date: Wed, 17 Aug 2005 18:54:05 -0400
From: "Michael Walsh" <MJW at press.jhu.edu>
To: <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Books that don't sell...
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>

> kfl at KeithLynch.net 8/16/2005 10:41:11 PM >>>
>"Madeleine Yeh" <myeh at wap.org> wrote:
>> "Michael Walsh" <MJW at press.jhu.edu> wrote:
>>> .. what to do with 'em:
>>>
>http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/west_midlands/333024
>5.stm
>
>> Not that I am doubting your story, but would not paper decompose
>and
>> cause the road to fail?
>
>It says "45,000 books were used for every mile."  The M6 motorway
>is
>seven lanes wide, and each lane is 3.65 meters (12 feet) wide.  (Just
>try finding that information in five minutes without getting out of
>one's seat before the Web and Google!)  That comes to one book for
>every ten square feet.  Conclusion:  The highway wouldn't be
>harmed
>if they rotted.  Nor would it be improved if they didn't.  The whole
>story seems very implausible to me.

Speaking, as it were, of paper... from BoingBoing.net:
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=58209

So, come a nuclear holocaust, there will be left: cockroaches, Keith
Richards, and... ?

mjw