Books are not too expensive • Hacker News Board

Re: Books are not too expensive

#51

Post by Brajeshwar » Thu, Apr 23, 2026, 1:45 AM UTC

I moved entirely to buying hardcovers. It is easier on the eye, and paperbacks, especially in India, are horribly bad quality. The cost is a matter of perspective (or geography). A typical hardcover costs ~₹2,000 (~$20) which is the norm, but that is a costly thing in India (is roughly the cost of the tea/milk supply for the whole month for my family.)

Of course, this makes me choose my books wisely and with intention. I’m still on the lookout for an ebook reader (no more Kindles). I still want to keep a good ratio where for every 5 ebooks, I should have at least 2 physical books.

So, books are NOT cheap, but the cost is what to consider if it is “worth it” to you.

Re: Books are not too expensive

#52

Post by georgefrowny » Thu, Apr 23, 2026, 1:48 AM UTC

Brajeshwar wrote: post #51

I moved entirely to buying hardcovers. It is easier on the eye, and paperbacks, especially in India, are horribly bad quality. The cost is a matter of perspective (or geography). A typical hardcover costs ~₹2,000 (~$20) which is the norm, but that is a costly thing in India (is roughly the cost of the tea/milk supply for the whole month for my family.) Of course, this makes me choose my books wisely and with intentio…

For the reader, Kobos are a solid choice that can run open source software (and the software exists, it's not theoretical).

My problem with physical books is mostly the physical storage space. I have to be really careful not to fill the house with them.

Re: Books are not too expensive

#53

Post by lamasery » Thu, Apr 23, 2026, 1:52 AM UTC

A_D_E_P_T wrote: post #5

At some point you just have to move to Ebooks. It's way cheaper (usually ~6x cheaper) and it's much more convenient, as you always have your entire library with you. Sometimes even in duplicate, i.e. on more than one device at the same time, in the same place. I was very reluctant to make the move at first, as I love everything about physical books -- their feel, the way they smell, the cover art -- but I was accumul…

> It's way cheaper (usually ~6x cheaper)

I have hundreds of books. All but... I dunno, fewer than a hundred, were purchased used. Tens of the ones purchased new, were cheap Dover Thrift editions (they're so cheap that if you're paying shipping on used, you can often pay barely-more and just buy new).

Ebooks only improve my costs if I pirate.

Re: Books are not too expensive

#54

Post by ceplabs » Thu, Apr 23, 2026, 2:16 AM UTC

Brajeshwar wrote: post #51

I moved entirely to buying hardcovers. It is easier on the eye, and paperbacks, especially in India, are horribly bad quality. The cost is a matter of perspective (or geography). A typical hardcover costs ~₹2,000 (~$20) which is the norm, but that is a costly thing in India (is roughly the cost of the tea/milk supply for the whole month for my family.) Of course, this makes me choose my books wisely and with intentio…

So the print in hardbacks is better quality than paperbacks? I had no idea.

Re: Books are not too expensive

#55

Post by xboxnolifes » Thu, Apr 23, 2026, 2:28 AM UTC

deepsun wrote: post #20

vhanda wrote: post #4

The bigger problem for me is buying Ebooks without DRM, which are cheaper than the paperback. I see no reason why I should be paying the same (or often more) than the paperback version. Just let me buy the ebook and let me own it. Right now, after pirating it, I have to find the author's patreon / something and contribute some money that way. It shouldn't be this hard to give someone money.

Is it hard to buy non-DRM books? Well, if you bought Kindle, then I see, but... don't buy Kindle? There are plenty other options.

Care to share these other options?

Re: Books are not too expensive

#56

Post by rtpg » Thu, Apr 23, 2026, 2:47 AM UTC

unmole wrote: post #41

rtpg wrote: post #32

Japan and France to me stand out as places where pop culture-y books are really fairly priced. And both of these are places where there are established printing formats that don't try to make the books huge. Walking around in an Australian bookstore at least I am still a bit flabbergasted by how everything is printed to be huge, everything a slightly different size, lots of paperbacks with glossy covers etc. Not that…

> lots of paperbacks with glossy covers etc. Glossy cover lamination is actually cheaper than matte lamination. If you meant more fancier finishing like spot UV or foil-stamping, ignore what I said.

yeah I was thinking of the foil stamping etc... maybe it just looks fancier to me (and hence why they do it I guess??)

Japanese paperbacks tend to use dust covers instead. Dunno if that's cheaper or not, but it seems like it.

Re: Books are not too expensive

#57

Post by b00ty4breakfast » Thu, Apr 23, 2026, 3:04 AM UTC

A_D_E_P_T wrote: post #5

At some point you just have to move to Ebooks. It's way cheaper (usually ~6x cheaper) and it's much more convenient, as you always have your entire library with you. Sometimes even in duplicate, i.e. on more than one device at the same time, in the same place. I was very reluctant to make the move at first, as I love everything about physical books -- their feel, the way they smell, the cover art -- but I was accumul…

I have plenty of ebooks, and the main advantage there, for me, is the info density. But there are still advantages to paper books. For one thing, I can't have my paper books revoked after purchase, something that happened to me more than once on amazon before I wised up and started downloading my books to my PC (before they went and made that impossible). I don't shop at amazon much for anything these days but it could happen anywhere with DRM. (which is another advantage; I don't have to waste time stripping the DRM off of paper books).

For another thing, I don't need to worry about charging a paper book and I don't need to have a battery pack and cables to read a book if the power is out or I'm somewhere without electricity. That's probably not a concern for most of the folks on HN but I personally prefer having a reduced infrastructural dependence for certain activities.

Reading on a screen also destroys my attention span. Again, that's not necessarily a common concern for most people but if I'm reading anything heavier than Raymond Chandler, I feel like my brain turns to oatmeal on an e-reader or a computer screen.

Re: Books are not too expensive

#58

Post by runarberg » Thu, Apr 23, 2026, 3:18 AM UTC

A_D_E_P_T wrote: post #5

At some point you just have to move to Ebooks. It's way cheaper (usually ~6x cheaper) and it's much more convenient, as you always have your entire library with you. Sometimes even in duplicate, i.e. on more than one device at the same time, in the same place. I was very reluctant to make the move at first, as I love everything about physical books -- their feel, the way they smell, the cover art -- but I was accumul…

If I squint my eyes I can maybe picture my self reading parts of 5 different books in a single day. A fiction novel (1), a Japanese textbook (2), a Japanese vocab book (3), a coffee table book I just happen to need a particular trivia from (4), and a mushroom hunting book (5).

Usually I know exactly which book I need for a given occasion: Sitting on a bus for a while = take my fiction; waiting in a ferry line = take my Japanese textbook; going mushroom hunting = mushroom book obv.

I don’t think I’ve ever been at a place where I did bring a book but wished I had brought a different book. And as such I have a hard time seeing the value in being able to access my entire library wherever I want.

Re: Books are not too expensive

#59

Post by ivansavz » Thu, Apr 23, 2026, 4:01 AM UTC

WaitWaitWha wrote: post #36

To be fair, this article is partially true. Now, allow me to pour some gasoline/petrol/benzine around this thread. Have you purchased a college course required book recently? There is a market monopoly by Pearson, Wiley,Cengage, and McGraw. Buy the eBook, or the actual book with a CD in the back, but cannot access the pictures because the code can be use only once ! (often the codes do not work at all) Updated every…

Yeah the textbook cartel is outrageous. I started a textbook publishing company to fight this!

I was working on web copy describing how crazy the mainstream textbook prices are, and used the price C$300 for the calculus book, trying to be flippant (to exaggerate the competitor price to make my prices look better). I decided to check the price in the bookstore, and to my surprise the price was even higher than that! (sold as bundle: book + exercise manual + solutions manual). When your real prices are higher than the pricing people use as hyperbole, you know there is a problem.

It makes no sense—for a subject that has been around for 300+ years, and virtually unchanged for the past 100.

Re: Books are not too expensive

#60

Post by dwg » Thu, Apr 23, 2026, 4:23 AM UTC

Information and entertainment are less scarce today than the 1960s. Expensive is not just relative to what it used to cost, but also relative to value.