Not Just Some National Geographic, All Of It

It’s the bane of many a public librarian. The phone rings, you answer it, and then politely decline the caller’s offer to donate the last 60 years of National Georgraphic magazine to your library.

“Yes, I’m sure they’re in fine condition. Oh? Been in your mother-in-law’s house for the last 60 years huh? Yes, I know you want to help out, but we’ve got several years of it already. Yes, sir I can tell you’re happy she’s dead but we just don’t have any use for that many magazines. No, actually they’re not all that valuable – you do realize they print several hundred thousand at a time, right? Yes, so they’re not exactly rare or anything.”

Now there’s a much easier way to get every single issue of National Geographic from the last 120 years and it doesn’t involve any donations. You can buy it on its very own hard drive. That’s right, you can get every issue of National Geographic since the dawn of humankind on a 160 GB external drive. As a bonus, the collection only takes up 60 GB, so you’ve got another 100GB to do with as you please.

I wonder if that’d be enough room for every issue of Popular Mechanics…