Smaller Stack, Bigger Loss

There's a story in the paper today about the Fisher Stack building at Sydney University having nearly half of its books removed.  Now the name of that building brings back memories.  I would only venture into "The Stack" when the books on the recommended reading lists were unavailable.  Dark, confined and unwelcoming, it was not somewhere you chose to visit regularly.  In fact, stepping into it was quite an overwhelming experience.  There are few things in life that give you as much insight into your own mortality than gazing upon thousands and thousands of books.  Apparently there are 48 kilometres of books in there.  When you walked in, you instantly knew that in your lifetime, even if you devoted your life to it, you would only ever scratch the surface of the vast repository of knowledge sitting on those shelves. 

I remember taking notes from a history book and being impressed with its level of detail and then being taken aback when I reached the conclusion, where it stated that this Hitler fellow may turn out to be a very dangerous character who may well threaten world peace.  At the time I was exasperated that the book was almost older than what I was trying to research.  Ever since, having had time to reflect upon it, I remain impressed at what a scholarly piece of work it was and, with the benefit of 50 years of hindsight, noting the remarkable accuracy of its forecast.  While sadly, I can't recall the name of the book or the author, it is footnoted on an old essay lying somewhere in a box in my garage.  Given that this book will almost certainly be one of those cleared out, that might be the last remaining reference to it in my world.