Photo via Wikimedia Commons.

Here is a gem of a headline from Richard Chirgwin at The Register: “Birmingham’s Computer Bookshops Ltd goes titsup: Dead tree downturn does for venerable technical publisher.”

Computer Bookshops Ltd, a computer reference bookshop in Birmingham (in the West Midlands, UK, not Alabama), is closing after thirty-six years in business. Half the staff were laid off in February while the administrators, David Bennet and Nigel Morrison, searched for a buyer.

Computer Bookshops Ltd opened in 1978, and the store used to carry about 350,000 volumes. CBL Distribution, bookaxis.com, cblearning.com, and computermanuals.co.uk were all part of the company. It’s hard to imagine there’s much business in the computer manual industry when every device we own can find the information in less than a second (thanks, net neutrality).

The company writes:

Here’s the 75% off sale running if you’re into that sort of thing. Discount code: TITSUP.