Debate: Should we hoard obscure books or pass them on?

I grabbed a 1972 punk zine from a Tucson garage sale last month, total impulse buy. Part of me thinks keeping it locked away preserves history, but my buddy argues stuff like that belongs in someone's hands who'll actually read it, not a shelf. The zine has a hand-drawn map of a local DIY venue that no longer exists, which is cool, but does that matter if nobody sees it? Which side are you on for these weird finds, preserve or circulate?

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bennett.luna1mo ago

Is it even really history if nobody gets to experience it? I found a box of old sci-fi pulp mags at an estate sale and there was a letter from a reader complaining about a flying saucer cover, handwritten and everything. I kept them for like a year, then handed them to a guy at my local comic shop who runs a little lending shelf... he was way more stoked about them than I ever was. That map zine though, that sounds special... maybe you could post a photo of it online so at least the folks who remember that venue can see it, while you keep the paper safe. Circulation can happen in all kinds of ways, you know?

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