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Comment by marcodiego | Hacker News Reader

I imagine a machine. Something similar to that automated coca-cola machines which you choose the flavor of your soda, pay it and it spits it.

Imagine a machine where you could choose a book from project Gutenberg, pay it and have it instantly printed for you.

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I have the same dream, but I'd like it to plug into the Internet Archive.

Then again, the cost to the world's trees would be substantial because I'd remember about the Serials in Microfilm project[1]. Seriously, check out these images of the collection[2].

Then again, again, think of all the carbon you could sequestrate by printing that many books (and keeping them).

I've even considered DIY book binding so I can print fun things, but it's (obviously) quite a mission. Occasionally I see a novelty reprint of an old volume of a periodical in a museum shop and I start searching for book presses and glue and then sanity prevails.

[1]: https://archive.org/details/sim_microfilm

[2]: https://archive.org/details/SerialsOnMicrofilmCollection/IMG...

The Harvard Book Store (the independent one, not the Coop) has just such a machine! Though I haven’t used it.

https://www.harvard.com/clubs_services/books_on_demand/

That service was shut down within just 24 hours of your leaving this comment:

> Termination of Print-on-Demand Services

> Print-on-Demand services are no longer available through Harvard Book Store, effective Monday, April 25, 2022.

That a bit how I see my ebook reader. I’m just not enamored of the physical books.

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