News and views from the Like to read in the bathtub?
But hate having to fret about keeping your book dry? Well, not to worry, IF your book is made out of synthetic paper. Melcher Media has a line of products called Durabooks, which (mostly) look and feel like ordinary books but are made with synthetics constructed of plastic resins and inorganic fillers. Emily K. brought me an example of one that she checked out from the public library for her chemistry project. It's also available from the University Library.
Here's an excellent instance of walking the walk, practicing what you preach, etc. Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things, by William McDonough and Michael Braungart is a book about environmentally-conscious industrial design. It looks like a book, but its pages are slick and clearly immune to water, dirt, grease, and humidity. They are even tear-resistant. There's gotta be some reason all books aren't published this way. Don't think I want to know what it is.
Here's an excellent instance of walking the walk, practicing what you preach, etc. Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things, by William McDonough and Michael Braungart is a book about environmentally-conscious industrial design. It looks like a book, but its pages are slick and clearly immune to water, dirt, grease, and humidity. They are even tear-resistant. There's gotta be some reason all books aren't published this way. Don't think I want to know what it is.
1 Comments:
There is a reason all books aren't published like that - actually, there are several. i've seen these books and they are pretty cool and certainly durable! i think they are great for purposes like reading in the bathtub, children's books (all those sticky fingers - yuck!) and maybe even cookbooks, but they're not a good idea for researh material or even most novels. the first reason, which might be pretty obvious is that the pages are pretty darned thick and heavy. for smaller books, this isn't a problem, but larger books, like a dictionary, would weigh 2-3 times what it would printed on normal paper, which would create some problems and be a real drag for people to carry around. The second, and more important, problem is the long-term stability of plastics. Over time almost all plastics are chemically unstable. Some more than others. Although i do not know what type of plastic is used for Durabooks (it's patented), the pages are all plastic with "inorganic fillers". Overtime, almost all plastics off-gas (lose) their added plasticizers, which are additives that make them flexible. My guess would be that over time these books will become very rigid and brittle, in probably under 25 years. this is a much shorter time period than it takes paper to get brittle, for good quality paper, that takes 200 years! the good news is, Durabooks are recyclable :)
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