Re records surviving, where books don't: Shellac 78s tend not to. Whenever the Sunday School in London broke an attendance record, they'd celebrate by having one of the children break a 78 over the head of the Church Warden; I never did think to ask whether him being bald was cause or effect.

When our family moved from there, my father left behind our stack of 78s, much to my distress. (They may still be in the loft.) Mind you, I'd long since broken the second half of the William Tell overture by sitting on it, so I could no longer confuse my younger brother into running in from the garden, thinking the Lone Ranger was on the telly.