Joe Kennedy

Joe Kennedy is routinely named the region's best writer by readers of The Roanoker magazine.

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You might think you'd have to conduct an extensive search to find anyone who does not agree that Roanoke Valley residents suffer from a surplus of telephone book providers, but they do exist.

To find them, you need only write that the Roanoke Valley has a surplus of telephone book providers and telephone books.

In no time, you'll get at least a couple of e-mails or calls in favor of the plenitude of books, regardless of their effect on trees or the cost of recycling them.

Take Stephen Richards.

His e-mail began by asking me which book I meant when I said, "One really is enough."

He then said, "Some of us appreciate the alternative telephone books."

Verizon's decision to separate business and residential listings prompted him to use other books that mix such listings.

"I can find the number I'm looking for in about half the time," he wrote.

By his count, Verizon offers five pages of Roanoke and Salem maps. The Yellow Book and the EZ to USE Big Book provide 10.

He then said if Verizon had a better product, "you could be excused for advocating giving them a monopoly."

But I didn't do that.

I just said to call Yellow Book and other publishers if you wished to get off their delivery route.

Richards didn't see it that way.

"You specifically suggested cancelling the Yellow Book as if they were the prime offender," he said.

No, I specifically mentioned Yellow Book because it was the only publisher that responded to my telephone call and told me how to get off the route -- by requesting deletion through its customer service department or Web site.

"Let's do it -- and call the other publishers as well," I wrote.

Richards did say he would prefer to get one book with the best features of all.

Me, too.

Jennifer Wright said she and her husband chose to advertise their small business in Yellow Book after encountering numerous errors in a book from another publisher.

They are much happier now.

She, too, concluded that I have it in for Yellow Book, but, again, I don't. If anything, my opinion is favorable -- its spokeswoman called me back and answered my questions. I couldn't reach anybody with other publishers.

Margaret Klapperich, a Roanoke newcomer, likes having several books. She keeps a spare one in each of her family's vehicles.

Sometimes, while running errands, she decides to add another stop, but needs an address or phone number. The book provides both, plus maps.

"It's also nice to keep a book by each telephone extension in the house," she said.

I'm still thinking about the trees.

"I don't always agree with your opinion in this column," wrote veterinarian Melanie Crovo, "but your story on the telephone books was right on target."

Business owners have no way to predict how many people will use each book. Advertising is expensive, and advertising in multiple books is more expensive.

"While I am for a free market," Crovo wrote, "I wish there was some sort of bidding process for the local phone books so there was not so much waste of time, resources and money."

Jim Roberts at Williamson Road Pharmacy noted that a business listing in one book costs a minimum of $28 per month.

"A business cannot risk not having it because you don't know which telephone book the consumer will keep," Roberts wrote.

I know a guy who says it's quicker to look up numbers on the Internet, but that depends on how wired you are.

If you're in the kitchen and the computer is turned off or upstairs, using a phone book probably would be quicker.

I hate to admit that, as I'm partial to trees.