# How to tell if your current book is old **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** books-writing-myths\ **Created:** [May 19, 2024, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-tell-if-your-current-book-is-old/1001759 "2024-05-19T04:29:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2024, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-tell-if-your-current-book-is-old/1001759/21 "2024-05-19T14:32:21Z")
A man wonders if his wife’s child is really his; but how could anyone know? ---
**Author:** ![CaveMike](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cavemike/32/16379_2.png) [@CaveMike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaveMike)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2024, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-tell-if-your-current-book-is-old/1001759/22 "2024-05-19T14:42:12Z")
The protagonist is curing lepers. ---
**Author:** ![Bayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bayaker/32/3454_2.png) [@Bayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bayaker)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2024, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-tell-if-your-current-book-is-old/1001759/23 "2024-05-19T14:51:44Z")
There are no spaces between the words. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2024, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-tell-if-your-current-book-is-old/1001759/24 "2024-05-19T16:10:09Z")
The character drives a Meteor Custom DeLuxe. Or a 56 Buick Roadmaster. (Nero Wolfe) ---
**Author:** ![Si\_Amigo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/si_amigo/32/2877_2.png) [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2024, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-tell-if-your-current-book-is-old/1001759/25 "2024-05-19T16:40:17Z")
Its written on a wall in some variant of pictoglyphs. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2024, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-tell-if-your-current-book-is-old/1001759/26 "2024-05-19T16:51:05Z")
-or on clay tablets. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2024, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-tell-if-your-current-book-is-old/1001759/27 "2024-05-19T16:52:29Z")
In-vitro fertilization and surrogate motherhood is a far-out science fiction concept for the future. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2024, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-tell-if-your-current-book-is-old/1001759/28 "2024-05-19T16:54:34Z")
The book makes a point of telling the reader that it’s set in the future, by featuring hand-held (or wrist-worn) computers. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2024, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-tell-if-your-current-book-is-old/1001759/29 "2024-05-19T16:56:14Z")
After dinner, the gentlemen retreat to the smoking room to discuss serious matters. ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2024, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-tell-if-your-current-book-is-old/1001759/30 "2024-05-19T16:59:57Z")
The main character charges $25 a day plus expenses, which some clients find a bit pricey. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2024, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-tell-if-your-current-book-is-old/1001759/31 "2024-05-19T17:06:26Z")
When a radio transmitter is described as sending Hertzian waves out into the aether. When dinosaurs have bent legs like tortoises and iguanas, sauropods are swamp dwellers and theropods walk upright. When space travel is described as venturing into the ionosphere. ---
**Author:** ![Si\_Amigo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/si_amigo/32/2877_2.png) [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2024, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-tell-if-your-current-book-is-old/1001759/32 "2024-05-19T17:12:20Z")
When your history book refers to Native Americans as red men and that women may someday (shudder) vote. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2024, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-tell-if-your-current-book-is-old/1001759/33 "2024-05-19T17:35:27Z")
When a farm boy plowing the back forty with a mule aspires to become a starship pilot. For which it helps that he’s memorized the entire book of logarithms. ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2024, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-tell-if-your-current-book-is-old/1001759/34 "2024-05-19T20:20:23Z")
> [@colinfred](#): > > The cover is falling apart When there’s an inscription on the inside cover that reads _To Dad, from Katie and Ed Dec. 25 , 1946_ (my used bookstore copy of George R. Stewart’s “Names on the Land: A Historical Account of Place-Naming in the United States”) ---
**Author:** ![sciurophobic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cab0a1/32.png) [@sciurophobic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sciurophobic)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2024, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-tell-if-your-current-book-is-old/1001759/35 "2024-05-19T20:30:14Z")
It takes place in the future and the computers still have vacuum tubes. ---
**Author:** ![steepone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/977dab/32.png) [@steepone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/steepone)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2024, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-tell-if-your-current-book-is-old/1001759/36 "2024-05-19T20:41:30Z")
> [@sciurophobic](#): > > It takes place in the future and the computers still have vacuum tubes. And CRT monitors ---
**Author:** ![Jaycat.again](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jaycat.again/32/11525_2.png) [@Jaycat.again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jaycat.again)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2024, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-tell-if-your-current-book-is-old/1001759/37 "2024-05-19T21:45:23Z")
Its Dewey Decimal number is 1. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2024, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-tell-if-your-current-book-is-old/1001759/38 "2024-05-19T21:53:20Z")
> [@steepone](#): > > > [@sciurophobic](#): > > > > It takes place in the future and the computers still have vacuum tubes > > And CRT monitors Nonsense; if the Giant Brain cannot speak answers are fed out on a paper tape. ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2024, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-tell-if-your-current-book-is-old/1001759/39 "2024-05-19T21:57:35Z")
> [@colinfred](#): > > The cover is falling apart No, that’s just a who the fuck cares if it’s a good product modern book. I’ve had covers fall apart on five year old books. Really old books have sewn-in pages and cloth-covered covers, and their pages are still white and pliable. I have a few of those, mostly inherited from my grandmother. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2024, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-tell-if-your-current-book-is-old/1001759/40 "2024-05-19T22:04:41Z")
> [@Zyada](#): > > The main character calls the operator to get the number for the police. And the number is in exchange name format like LAkewood-2697 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-tell-if-your-current-book-is-old/1001759.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-tell-if-your-current-book-is-old/1001759.md?page=3)