I ordered a couple of new ham radio books last week because they looked interesting and it’s been a minute since I last added contemporary reading material to the shack bookshelf. More about my book collection in a minute.

Second Edition of VHF, Summits, and More - a recent update to the original (2019) book written by Bob Witte, K0NR a knowledgeable radioman, fellow ham blogger, and a friend. He lives in the mountains of Colorado so it’s no surprise the book is touted as an easy-to-understand introduction to VHF/UHF ham radio with an emphasis on mountaintop VHF operation. I ordered the printed version via Amazon and look forward to its arrival.

Digital Networking for Ham Radio - a new ARRL title authored by Glen Popiel, KW5GP. It’s a timely addition as amateur radio continues to morph and grow into all things digital. The ARRL says, the book brings together in one comprehensive resource the knowledge needed to build, configure, and expand digital networks for ham radio. From TCP/IP fundamentals to deploying mesh technologies such as AREDN®, HamWAN, and Meshtastic® - still waiting for this one to arrive too.

Future Reading, Entertainment, and my Old Radio Book Collection

Long-time readers may recall I began collecting old radio books decades ago. My interest was in a very specific genre (radio) during a very specific period, from 1900 until just after World War II, about 1946. I’ve exhaustively gleaned online sources along with random sellers, and I’ve spent considerable time and treasure trolling flea markets, auctions, and hamfests while building this collection. I quit counting after eight hundred books, but I would guess it now holds at least a thousand titles. These are all hardbacks, many of them first editions. A few are even autographed by their antique authors. Not all are strictly about amateur radio, some are about explorers who took radio along on their exotic journeys, while others tell the story of notable radio inventors. Not a small number are of the youth fiction variety, like the ‘Hardy Boys’ radio series, etc.

It was important to me to collect physical specimens of these early works, the way the original authors intended, to avoid the political correctness bullshit that has become all too common with reprints and electronic versions of written works.

Take the Hardy Boys series for instance:

“The Hardy Boys have evolved since their debut in 1927. From 1959 to 1973, the first 38 books were extensively revised to remove social and ethnic stereotypes, modernize content, and shorten the books”.

I’ve stopped adding to this collection because I’m out of room to house more physical books. Have I read every single title? No. Not even close. And that has me wondering, do I even need to purchase another work of fiction - in my lifetime? Along with all these books I also have an Audible membership (one new audio book a month) and an Unlimited Kindle subscription, and I still purchase the occasional new title from a local bookseller. The way I figure it, I could terminate the Audible and Kindle accounts and dive into those old books, and unless I live to be a centenarian, I still might not have time to read them all.

Technical books are an exception given these bubble up based on changes in technology and a desire for continuous education. But when it comes to fiction, maybe the world has enough? Same goes for media entertainment. We’ve all watched events in Mayberry play out a thousand times, yet it remains a heavy TV favorite. Lately, I’ve been enjoying a steady diet of old Perry Mason episodes. Streaming has totally changed the world of entertainment. With nearly a century of old TV shows and movies already in the can, and millions of old books published, who really needs new content?