I hate to jabber,though yes, I jabber a lot on Forums. I didn't want to do three screens of text on this. So briefly, perhaps incoherently again, I'll say this. Forums is made up of thousands of short bits, essentially paragraphs, some longer bits, like short columns, and a few essays from time to time that are long for the format. Nothing is intended to be part of a book, nor an online book length text. Okay. Understood. I never thought they were. On the other hand, many longer works -- paper printed books or similar length digital texts -- are derived from and sourced from similar short takes. For example, hundreds or thousands of quotes digested into biographies and histories for example. If the quotes were run out at length without organization, no one would see them as "a book." Organized and put in context, it is the material Churchill or Theodore Roosevelt used for their shelves of books. And yes, Teddy was a hugely prolific author. So folks, as implied in the original post, I was thinking of something that would be rigorously reworked. Not quite as farfetched as some took it. And balanced by the fact that I dismissed the idea out of hand at the outset. I would still suggest that books have been derived from less propitious sources It is a funny suggestion. But not quite as outlandish as some think. If it helps you, think of it as an online or audio book. (Read Baker's book on the preservation of paper archives. His arguments may not be conclusive, but they are much different from the pitch libraries bought in throwing out paper, and the high flown archivists at Duke U. believe him.)
