Bible goes digital

The legendary Chicago Manual of Style (formally, "A Manual of Style"), the bible of book editors for generations, has finally gone digital. You can still get your own copy (my 13th edition is right next to the New York Times Manual of Style and Usage on my bookshelf), but now the 15th edition is fully searchable and usable online.

Not that the University of Chicago Press is giving it away -- no, they're not making that newspaper mistake. A year's subscription will be $30 a year, with a $5 discount if you sign up before next Sept. 30. However, you can get a 30-day free trial. No, this is not an ad, just a sign of a milestone. The heavy, solid book that long was instrumental to the making of heavy, solid books may now go the way of most encyclopedias: that is, into the e-ther.