How Much Should Books Cost?

You don’t need me to tell you that everything is more expensive in 2023, but what would you say if I told you that books might not be as expensive as they should be? That’s the case Brooke Warner makes in this piece about publishing’s retail price problem. Whereas the general cost of goods in the US has increased about 115% in the last 30 years—that is, a product that cost $1 in 1993 now costs about $2.15—the price of hardcover books has only increased about 8%. That’s a mere $2.05 increase from $24.95 in 1993 to $27 now. I’ll admit that my eyebrows go up when I see a new hardcover, like the copy of Hidden Potential by Adam Grant that landed on my doorstep this morning, priced at $32, but maybe I should think again. (That’s an Adam Grant joke, real heads know.)

“Still, we shouldn’t all be so squeezed when the cost of everything is going up all around us. This is not a call for price fixing, but a call for the industry to value our products for what they’re worth today, in 2023, with the context of the world around us and real costs.“

Classic Books for $200, Alex

In their latest interactive quiz, the folks at The New York Times are challenging us to identify passages from classic books. And there are only five questions, which is great for 2023 attention spans and stressful because you can only miss one without getting a failing grade, which is absolutely how literary quizzes on the internet work.