Books are not too expensive • Hacker News Board

Re: Books are not too expensive

#101

Post by ninalanyon » Thu, Apr 23, 2026, 2:41 PM UTC

ivansavz wrote: post #59

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! (…

It only works because the educators are complicit. Most bachelors degree textbooks in basic sciences do not need to change from one decade to the next. My Lorrain and Corson Electromagnetic Fields and Waves from when I was studying applied physics in 1975 is just as correct now as it was then.

Re: Books are not too expensive

#102

Post by haritha-j » Thu, Apr 23, 2026, 2:41 PM UTC

voidUpdate wrote: post #71

Jesus, people are paying that much for books? Even buying them new, I often pick up a paperback from a high street shop in the UK for about £8? Maybe £12 sometimes? And that's not including the used bookshop I go to sometimes that will have books for £2-3. Sure, they're not hardbacks, or large reference textbooks, but to get a story to read is pretty affordable

I still fondly remember that time I found a hardback 50% off at £11. The only hardback I've ever bought brand new. At second hand shops, the difference is much less.

Re: Books are not too expensive

#103

Post by philips » Thu, Apr 23, 2026, 2:42 PM UTC

Sort of on topic but I wonder about the CO2e or energy cost of books. My friend recently opened a book store and the supply chain seems crazy:

- Make paper somewhere

- Ship paper to China

- Print the book in China

- Ship the book back across the ocean to the publisher's distribution center

- Ship the book the bookstore to shelve

- Ship the book back to the publisher if it doesn't sell

The CO2e of all of these steps must be crazy compared to an ebook and ereader for most any serious reader.

Anyone know of a definitive study on this? Here is a blog post about it: https://sites.uw.edu/libraryvoices/2025/01/13/battle-of-the-...

Re: Books are not too expensive

#104

Post by haritha-j » Thu, Apr 23, 2026, 2:43 PM UTC

rkachowski wrote: post #65

This seems really quite confused in its message. > Yes, the original price of To Kill a Mockingbird and Tolkien’s Fellowship were just $3.95 and $5. But those are nominal values. When we factor inflation, the picture changes dramatically. In today’s dollars—and you can run this exercise yourself—those cover prices would look more like $43 and $54. I mean, yeah that's too expensive... > Now compare that to housing, he…

I would've thought movies and sporting events are a fairly appropriate category for comparison for books.

Re: Books are not too expensive

#105

Post by renewiltord » Thu, Apr 23, 2026, 2:51 PM UTC

ivansavz wrote: post #59

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! (…

The 'textbook cartel' plays the same role for authors as Ticketmaster plays for artists: they're the bad guy so that artists can charge more.

Re: Books are not too expensive

#106

Post by ninalanyon » Thu, Apr 23, 2026, 2:53 PM 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…

What is the advantage of an ebook reader versus an ordinary Android tablet?

Re: Books are not too expensive

#107

Post by renewiltord » Thu, Apr 23, 2026, 2:53 PM UTC

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.

I like to pay the author for the marginal cost and then once it's hit a sum that can be transferred I do that. e.g. I estimate about $1E-12 per time I hit Cmd-C and Cmd-V on each book. So far, no author has hit the threshold for me to send them their cent, but I dearly believe "render unto Caesar what is Caesar". It's important we pay authors.

Re: Books are not too expensive

#108

Post by TheCoelacanth » Thu, Apr 23, 2026, 2:54 PM UTC

Till_Opel wrote: post #78

The pricing framing in the article confuses cost-to-produce with willingness-to-pay. Two completely separate things. A book costs $4 to print and $25 at retail not because of margin gouging, but because the price reflects value-to-reader times conversion-elasticity, not the printing line item. Same thing happens in services. Agencies that cost-plus their pricing leave 30-50% on the table because they're solving for c…

Using the cost to print instead of the full cost of production is very misleading. Someone needs to write, edit, typeset, market, etc. the books.

Most books don't sell a ton of copies, so there usually isn't a lot of profit left over after those costs.

Re: Books are not too expensive

#109

Post by mrwh » Thu, Apr 23, 2026, 2:54 PM UTC

Tangential, and very anecdotal, but I've been seeing more books on the BART. While almost everyone is hunched over their phones of course, it feels like there's a growing number reading a paperback. (Oddly? it's been a while since I saw a kindle.)

Re: Books are not too expensive

#110

Post by mrwh » Thu, Apr 23, 2026, 2:56 PM UTC

calvinmorrison wrote: post #48

solomonb wrote: post #39

When I was a child my parents told me they would always buy me a book no matter what. They would take me to bookstores of all stripes and let me wander. I would spend hours walking the sections looking at whatever caught my eye. Then I would pick out a couple to take home and read. This was how I discovered the world. I think this had a bigger impact on my education then anything else in my childhood and I owe all bo…

Alternatively I visit a book store every 5 or 7 years when we visit relatives. It's a big old barn of a used bookstore. I remember quite clearly in high school seeing a specific chess book, for $20! When I returned many years later it was still there. I will never, ever, learn all the opening moves to the italian defense but, i know the book is there if i ever need it.

I've found some wonderful books at estate sales. A poet's annotated books of poetry, for example.