Saturday, 21 May 2016

A publishing puzzle

Taking a break with the NYRB this morning, I came across an article about a Chinese astronomer called Fang Lizhi who, with his wife, had written an excellent book of popular science about the creation of the universe.

A little old, being from the late eighties, but I thought just the thing for me, so off to Amazon, where the best offer was £60 or so secondhand, which was a bit too strong. So off to the Book Depository, often cheaper than Amazon, but not on this occasion, while Ebay seemed to think that I was talking about a comic book. Last resort, off to Abebooks, to find they were offering the book at prices ranging up to over £1,000.

What is wrong with this highly puffed book that the equally highly puffed market forces work in such an odd way?

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