do you use your phone book?????

[DukeCity]

Haven't cracked open an "acoustic" (as opposed to electronic) phone book in years. I still keep a couple on the piano bench, hoping to attract the ghost of Erroll Garner.

[Tim McG]

Most of the numbers I need or have to call I have either written down in my Rolodex or have them stored on my cell phone.

However, on occasion, I do refer to the phone book for numbers I rarely need or when a fix-it job comes up.

Like Jim, I still have a land line. Mainly because it doesn't need a battery and for messages from folks when we're not home.

The local phone book, yes (although my number is not listed, I have no idea why ...), especially when looking for a craftsman or special services - for numbers from other cities, I use the internet search teleauskunft.de - that's about all I need

You may want to change that, Mike. The phone company charges you to keep your number unlisted.

[Neal Pomea]

Much handier at home than starting up the computer and going on Google where information about my searching behavior becomes a commodity they sell and make money from.

Edited November 24, 2011 by Neal Pomea

[Christiern]

" The phone company charges you to keep your number unlisted. "

For decades, I had to have an unlisted number, because of my visibility as a reviewer and broadcaster, but I had myself listed, sans address, as "Fred Nurdley"—the pseudonym I used when writing liner notes for albums that didn't make me wish to hear more. When I told this to Tasha Thomas, a singer friend of mine, she had herself listed as Freda Nurdley. We were the only Nurdleys in the Manhattan white pages.

In Iceland, at least when I was growing up there, the phone book listed everybody by their first name.

[Jazzmoose]

When I was a child, exceptionally strong men used to tear them in half (phone books, not pizzas)

When I was ten, I could do that myself. Then I moved to a bigger town...

[kinuta]

I'm strictly a fibre optic land line user.

If you've ever seen the giant Tokyo phone directories you'll understand why I throw - actually heave with some difficulty- them straight into the garbage.

I like the idea of using them as rudimentary bookshelves !