Not that I use the local YP much, but it probably depends to a large degree on how often you need local services like plumbers etc. To be sure, even as a homeowner, you tend to compile your own rolodex (to use an anachronism) of local service companies to use but every now and then you need something different that may not be easy to find on the Web. (Web presence is still very [EDIT] hit or miss for a lot of local companies.)
This is true and happened to me just last week. I used to belong to Angie's List, which helped a lot, but I so rarely used it that I dropped the service. I wished I kept my Yellow Pages last week when I wanted to look something up.
Me too. For a while, I lived in a largish place with two nice fireplaces. Every catalog, junk mail, etc... went right in. There was some door to door guy who would come by asking about my interest in various things and offering catalogs.
Question: "Sir, how do you use catalogs and the yellow pages?"
Answer: "Home heating, please sign me up for more."
He laughed his ass off, "Seriously?"
To which I replied, "No Joke, why not?"
The conversation moved on from there, and we did discuss how and if people even care about these things, and he indicated many elderly people absolutely did. Turns out, he was door to door in my neighborhood due to a fairly concentrated set of these people who do buy and follow up on direct mail, catalog and use yellow pages regularly.
I suspect YP is going to face a generational fall off of business over the next 10 years as their prime demographics age out.
In addition to YP, there is the whole "direct response" type of campaign, most often executed via the mail, used heavy by televangelists, and others who would be associated with late night TV infomercials. The sweet spot demographic is over 50 for all of this, and as people age out, there just won't be the kind of back fill we saw through the 80's and 90's.
What I would often do is over extend the binding and tear the book. If you take a minute or two and over flex the binding, you can get it to stand up with the pages spread out. Put other bits around the book, and the whole thing burns fairly well. Sure, some poking about might be needed well into the burn, but it's not all that much.
It's true, just full on burning the book never works. But sections of it work just fine. Burn a few calories prepping the thing, and it's possible to get a reasonable burn.
Frankly, I wasn't too worried about it being 100 percent complete. A few unburnt bits were no big deal. And it was nice ambiance.