Phone books

Today I just got the Phoenix metro edition for the year. It is only one book. I grew up in Santa Barbara and I can only remember it being one book there. In the 17 years I have lived here I saw it grow to 4 books from I think 3. And the regional edition for the Northwest valley had all the retirement communities personal phone number and address listings in large print. It's been 2 years since the phone book(s) even had personal information. Thinking back on it, I don't think I have used a phone book for anything but a business look up in 10 years or so. A large part of it's usefulness for personal information has changed with people not listing their addresses or getting rid of land lines in favor of cell phones. And even businesses have cut down on the amount of advertising they do in the phone books. I guess seeing that I only got one book with all the yellow pages and business listings mad me wax nostalgic today. Time was when phone books got worn out in a year. Now they may get out of date but certainly not worn out from overuse.