/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.23160782]

>Penquin Classic: $13
>YA fantasy and airport romance: $5 (buy one get one free)
Why are old white man books so fucking expensive?

[Anonymous No.23160900]

>>23160782
I swear I remember reading something either from a self-published Amazon author or an actual publishing executive, that if you’re reading classic literature they assume you have more money and charge accordingly and if you are reading supermarket/airport fiction they assume you’re a povertyfag
Anything more than $10 for a paperback is overpriced, I said what I said
James Clavel’s publisher wants $25 each for Shogun in paperback split into two books, absolute madness

[Anonymous No.23160930]

>>23160900
It's true, classics are also required course material and paid for by parents or loan money, and priced accordingly. Anything other than the high school material is usually also in a trade format and on a slightly higher grade of paper and binding, which does cost more.

[Anonymous No.23160932]

>>23160782
This is why I pirate books

[Anonymous No.23160935]

>>23160782
to filter the plebs

[Anonymous No.23160938]

Buy the book, take a scalpel to 8 pages from the last two chapters.
Return it to the store.

It's a victimless crime.

[Anonymous No.23160940]

>>23160900
>James Clavel’s publisher wants $25 each for Shogun in paperback split into two books, absolute madness
I paid $25 for the hardcover special edition (new condition) back in 2022. The price of that book is inflated thanks to tvniggers.

[Anonymous No.23160941]

>>23160932
Sailing the High Seas

[Anonymous No.23161055]

>>23160782
>YA fantasy and airport romance: $5 (buy one get one free)
where can I get this, even the second-hand stores here go for more

[Anonymous No.23161242]

>>23160782
used bookstores niggaaaaa

[Anonymous No.23161890]

>>23160782
why dont you shop at a local used bookstore?

[Anonymous No.23161910]

>>23160782
Hey anon, have you considered visiting a bookstore where they sell used books?
It might be cheaper even if it like totally doesn't relate to what you are like saying.

[Anonymous No.23161955]

>>23161242
>>23161890
>>23161910
Used book Chads'

[Anonymous No.23161978]

>>23160782
Have you ever considered getting a better job? If you have to think for even a second when buying some new Penguins, you’ve fucked up somewhere along the way

[Anonymous No.23161983]

>>23160782
Hey OP, why bring up the price? Just earn more, no need to question why some things are more expensive than others. Just get money and go to a used bookstore.

[Anonymous No.23161985]

>>23161978
I used to have a nice job but then some chink decided to rape a pangolin or a bat or whatever and here we are. I have to analyze every book purchase beforehand. The good thing is I know what are the best editions of most Western (and some Eastern) books.

[Anonymous No.23161996]

>>23161985
>and here we are

It's been over 2 years since that all blew over - whatever nice job you used to have clearly did not have value (otherwise it would still be around post-COVID) or you were not good enough for said job and your bosses decided to trim the useful fat from their company and used COVID as a great excuse to do so. Get a better job instead of penny pinching over books you should have read years ago.

[Anonymous No.23162017]

>>23161996
> Get a better job
Yea, I will now get the best job in the world. Why didn't that occur to me? What a dummy. Thank you, Anon.

[Anonymous No.23162074]

>>23162017
Highly doubt that you put in the work or practice for getting a good job

[Anonymous No.23162782]

>>23161996
>>23161985
>>23161978
>just get a better job
bro if you don't have a useful degree you cant just into a well paying job. What kind of fantasy world do you live in? Do you think I wouldn't rather be doing something useful other than waiting tables while I'm going to school? Waiting tables is about as much money as I can make at the entry level and its still only about ~$20/hr on average. Not like I can get a cert or something while I'm going to school either. I've got 4 more years of suffering as a table-slave until I can do some engineering work. Maybe I'll get lucky and land an internship that can pay my bills in year 2-3.

[Anonymous No.23162809]

>>23162782
You can always go back to school to get that degree that gets you mullah. You are lazy and that’s what you’re poor

[Anonymous No.23162812]

>>23162809
Reread the post

[Anonymous No.23162863]

>paperback $10
>hardcover $20
I will forever consider these the only acceptable prices for new books.

[Anonymous No.23163080]

>>23160782
You shouldn't be buying classics new. Those companies hate you and the men that wrote those books and just use them to help prop up the absolute tripe they publish these days.

[Anonymous No.23163098]

AFAIK it's because most penguin classics do not sell much at all and so they increase the prices a lot
It's also the fact that the less likely a book is too sell, the more expensive it'd be to produce

[Anonymous No.23163116]

>>23163098
What do they sell a lot of then?

[Anonymous No.23163118]

>>23163116
Jane Austen

[Anonymous No.23163123]

>>23163118
Yea but i was just reminded of the fact that most of the more recent penguin publications sell less than a 1000 copies.

[Anonymous No.23163125]

>>23163118
>>23163123
Oh sorry, less than one dozen.
You'd think their classics pay for the whole operation.

[Anonymous No.23163133]

>>23160782
I only buy books from thrift stores. I’ve never spent more than $5; in fact, I usually spend less than half of that.

[Anonymous No.23163136]

>>23163133
For reference, I got a Penguin edition of Don Quixote for $3. Now, in fairness, the previous only did underline and highlight some sentences.

[Anonymous No.23163137]

>>23163136
>only
owner

[Anonymous No.23163317]

>>23160782
Penguins look good tho

[Anonymous No.23163338]

>>23160782
>paying for books in 2024
Ishiggydiggy
https://libgen.rs

[Anonymous No.23163345]

>>23161890
>>23161242
Used book stores fucking suck
It’s all boomer slop and the books are infested with bookworms
Are you guys a bunch of big city fags?

[Anonymous No.23163350]

>>23162782
>I have a useless degree, I deserve equal pay as valuable professions!
Do anons like you really exist? Are there people this retarded?

[Anonymous No.23163357]

My library is filled with books I bought for a literal loonie or toonie.
Buy used, or use a library

[Anonymous No.23163449]

>>23163350
do any of you have reading comprehension at all

[Anonymous No.23163478]

>>23160782
I just download the gutenberg E-PUB file and read it on my kindle, or print it out into pocket reader size and bind it myself. I recommend all anons learn book binding, it's really easy.

[Anonymous No.23164667]

Do people really buy books? Just get a fucking kindle or kobo.
>muh paper feel/smell//whateverthefuck
Stop acting like a woman.

[Anonymous No.23164693]

>>23162782
You should have budgeted and saved your money better so you’re not working like a wetback struggling to buy a $20 Penguin

[Anonymous No.23164702]

>>23162782
I'm a thirdie and reading a worthless waste of space nigger cry over getting paid "ONLY" $20/hr enrages me in a primal, animalistic way.

[Anonymous No.23164737]

>>23160782
>Dover Thrift is $2
>Project Gutenberg is legally free

[Anonymous No.23164849]

>>23163478
>just print and bind your own books bro
lmao

[Anonymous No.23164855]

>>23164702
>browncel cant into economics
Yea I bet you feel rage like some kind of monkey all the time. I wonder why

[Anonymous No.23164859]

>>23164855
>uppity poorfag with delusions of grandeur
A walking cliché.

[Anonymous No.23164863]

>>23164855
I can assure you that both me and my entire genealogical tree are whiter than your pathetic miscigenated manlet existance.
>cant into economics
Yeah sure you must suffer a lot, let me guess, you're going to cry about rent prices? About wealth distribution? Fucking gentrification? While you type on your Macbook while you eat your daily uber eats order and wonder why you can't afford a fucking book?
Kill yourself, mutt, kill yourself.

[Anonymous No.23164864]

>>23164859
I make more than you but you obviously dont understand how money works. 20 dollar in your favela seems like a lot but it doesnt buy you a tranny prozzie like you're used to in a big city filled with actual humans
drop a paypal link boy, white mans burden and all

[Anonymous No.23164868]

>>23164863
>>23164864
Nah, you arent. Read this, and drop paypal if you want. Not gonna give you an original comment tho

[Anonymous No.23164882]

>a genetic dead end who failed to attain a meaningful job in the most prosperous country on earth and resorted to work as a waiter (aka glorified serf) is trying to flex his wealth in an anonymous singaporean bookbinding club
You can't make this shit up, I'd endure the fallout of a nuclear war if that meant erasing your country from existance.

[Anonymous No.23164884]

>>23164864
To tack onto this, before you get your panties in a twist, im not that anon who makes 20 an hour but I lmao at being proven right
>Yea I bet you feel rage like some kind of monkey all the time. I wonder why

[Anonymous No.23164887]

>>23164882
>>23164884
Enjoie favela dweller, drop paypal link so you can get a big dick tranny to gape your hole. In other words ooh ooh aah aah

[Anonymous No.23164937]

>>23163345
I got a first edition of The Crying of Lot 49 at a rural used bookstore for one dollar

Also there's a very good used bookstore in the not exactly big city of Albany NY

[Anonymous No.23164951]

>>23163338
ebooks are for povertyfags or people on vacation

[Anonymous No.23164952]

>>23160782
>>23160900
It's a brand thing. Penguin is a premium brand and you are paying for the cover to look nice. If you want affordable, buy Dover Thrift, they are basically always under $10 and it's perfectly readable.

[Anonymous No.23164962]

>>23160782
>>YA fantasy and airport romance: $5 (buy one get one free)
part of it is that those are mass-market paperbacks, which are far lower quality than penguin classics (even though PCs aren't exactly lavish) which are "trade paperbacks", or at least somewhere in between MMPBs and nicer trade paperbacks like NYRB or the Landmark history books

[Anonymous No.23164965]

>>23164962
It's pretty easy to find cheap classics, but you have to expect that they won't be the same quality as the overpriced stuff.

[Anonymous No.23164989]

>>23164952
>you are paying for the cover to look nice.
Am I?

[Anonymous No.23164996]

>>23164989
The lines on it don't even line up with other penguin books.

[Anonymous No.23165006]

You're paying for the book, which is a luxury item that looks nice on a shelf.
All of those works of literature are free.

[Anonymous No.23165012]

>>23164996
what do you mean?

[Anonymous No.23165016]

>>23164989
I stand corrected. You are paying for "Penguin Classics" to be on the cover and not much else.

[Anonymous No.23165022]

>>23162782
You're in for a rude awakening if you think an internship will pay more than you waiting tables right now lol.

[Anonymous No.23165032]

>>23160782
Where do eurobros order their books from? Can't find a good deal since bookdepository shut down

[Anonymous No.23165036]

>>23164989
>out of the many pretty paintings of Japanese art, they went with this
I don't understand people sometimes, man.

[Anonymous No.23165062]

>>23165012
They're all the same height but they keep using different stripes and even when they use the same stripe it's always a bit wonky

[Anonymous No.23165065]

>>23165012
Like lol, they have other styles which look far better than this sleek inconspicuous yet failing at being uniform style.

[Anonymous No.23165066]

>>23160935
How do I reply to this without sounding mad?

[Anonymous No.23165074]

>>23165062
The ones with orange letters are from the past series.
>>23165065
They're made by different printing factories or whatever, hence the different sizes and yes, it's a bit annoying.

[Anonymous No.23165077]

>>23165062
The all white letter ones are the new ones; I hate them

[Anonymous No.23165110]

>>23165074
>The ones with orange letters
The orange for the name or the orange for the "penguin classics"
Oh nvm I get it already i think>>23165077
Anyway, I didn't know they were made by different factories but you'd at least expect them to get the dimensions right. They're all as tall as the other but somehow the lines cant match up? What a joke. I like the blue ones more anyway.
But yea, its not true to say you pay for the cover instead of the brandname.

[Anonymous No.23165116]

>>23165110
> I like the blue ones more anyway.
I haven't seen those. What are they like?

[Anonymous No.23165129]

>>23165116
The modern classics I mean. Look far more uniform and pleasing to the eye. Superior paper imo. Penguin has so many formats, it's ridiculous. They have more than these too.

[Anonymous No.23165134]

>>23165129
Ah, that's blue? It's more like green to me, maybe I'm colorblind or something. Yes, these are more pleasing in general and also they choose better art for these (far better curated).

[Anonymous No.23165145]

>>23165134
Look at them:
https://www.penguin.co.uk/series/PENMODC/penguin-modern-classics

Far better art :)

[Anonymous No.23165148]

>>23165134
And what's even funnier is that they print old classics in a far superior format as well. The black format is for these older classics but they also have this https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/series/MLC/modern-library-classics/

tldr;penguin publishing doesn't make sense

[Anonymous No.23165162]

>>23165148
They have absorbed and bought some many publishers and created so many imprints that they're a mess. Let me show you something else, just give me a sec.

[Anonymous No.23165197]

>>23165162
>>23165148
Apparently they have a relatively new big book format that they use for special cases (I haven't encountered any other book but this one). I don't know if you guys know any other example of this format in Penguin Classics.

[Anonymous No.23165209]

>>23165197
Another pic. It's significantly larger as you can see.

[Anonymous No.23165215]

>>23165197
>>23165209
Lol yea this is exactly what I mean. How can other publishers be consistent but the biggest housename can't?
Difference in paper and glue is big too. I've heard the new ones are especially heinous.

[Anonymous No.23165246]

>>23165197
I feel like they intended to make that book a Penguin Deluxe but at the last minute they went "Fuck it, let's just publish a massive Penguin Classic lmao" and that was it.

[Anonymous No.23165268]

>>23165246
https://youtu.be/qhJkR-u7rc0?t=193

[Anonymous No.23165286]

>We didn't know, sir! We weren't notified by UK, sir.
It seems they have terrible internal communication.

[Anonymous No.23165511]

>>23165197
The penguin edition of Samuel Richardson's Clarissa is like that as well. It's not new.

[Anonymous No.23165550]

>>23165511
Interesting. Do you happen to know what this format is called or where can I see the list of all the big Penguins?

[Anonymous No.23165611]

>>23165511
You're right btw. It's massive.

[Anonymous No.23165684]

>>23165550
It doesn't look like penguin distinguishes those bigger editions with a name. I can't find a list either.

[Anonymous No.23165993]

>>23165022
I dont think it will pay more but at least I won't be working with people that can hardly form coherent sentences and near a project of some value. If it weren't for the fact I'm in school now I'd almost rather be homeless than doing this fruitless labor even if it pays decent. At the end of the day my job is more about socially manipulating my manager and coworkers than it is anything else, which is tiresome to the soul.

[Anonymous No.23166003]

>>23165129
nice font and nice unique color, I like this series and almost everything in my apt is black and white

[Anonymous No.23166008]

>>23165550
Amazon shows book dimensions. Obviously doesn’t help with a list but right off the bat you are looking for long books. Pretty sure their bible is big too

[Anonymous No.23166262]

>>23164951
>to have a book instantly, for no cost, with no clutter
>poverty
I'm better off than the ones buying shit

[Anonymous No.23166541]

I dont know what Penguin is doing, have any of you noticed this supposed new series of books by penguin, new by design i mean.
Like a complete solid color, with one painting/picture as a rectangle, and the title at the top.

And these aren't part of the 'DELUXE Editons' line either. Just bigger in size than normal ones. There's nothing on the backside either, plain color, and the barcode. no blurbs/summary.
https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/444052/the-peasants-by-reymont-wladyslaw/9780241568064
https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/460456/the-diaries-of-franz-kafka-by-kafka-franz/9780241695746

[Anonymous No.23166549]

Jews will sell many things at a loss, because their true profit comes from further retarding the goyim.

[Anonymous No.23166558]

>>23163345
You’re just a retard who lives in a shitty area. Even my mediocre city has a great used bookstore. Also, there’s eBay, where used books can be had for $3-$4

[Anonymous No.23166568]

>>23166541
They sometimes start a series or a label and then discontinue them.

[Anonymous No.23166576]

>>23166541
It’s quite large format so might not work for everything. It’s currently used for new translations, ‘major’ releases etc. Just a handful of titles a year really. Kind of like >>23165197

[Anonymous No.23166700]

Personally, I hate used books, I like seeing how the pristine book gets more and more fucked up as I carry it in my pocket all day, sleep with it in bed, throw it about, maybe tear a page or bend an edge by accident. Man that's satisfaction that book is "mine"

[Anonymous No.23167143]

>>23166700
what about a used book that looks new?

[Anonymous No.23167186]

>>23163345
Yesterday's haul, I think you are going to the wrong bookstores.

[Anonymous No.23167196]

>>23165611
I saw it only once irl, it's a big guy.

[Anonymous No.23167219]

>>23166700
What a faggot.

[Anonymous No.23167802]

>>23160782
You can get a dover thrift edition of most classic novels for $3-6.

[Anonymous No.23167824]

>>23160932
All of these are public domain anyway, just print em out and enjoy

[Anonymous No.23167837]

>>23161242
I’m autistic and I refuse to buy any book that isn’t brand new or write anything in them

[Anonymous No.23167840]

>>23166541
It looks massive. Is it worth reading?

[Anonymous No.23167850]

>>23166700
>sleep with it in bed, throw it about, maybe tear a page or bend an edge by accident.
Sounds like you're bibliosexual.

[Anonymous No.23167862]

>>23167840
The Jew

[Anonymous No.23168165]

>>23167186
Nothing good it seems

[Anonymous No.23168301]

>>23167862
The Pea

[Anonymous No.23168307]

>>23168301
Upvoted!

[Anonymous No.23168327]

that's why i buy cheap-ass mass market paperbacks (pocket books) second hand

[Anonymous No.23168852]

>>23168327
signet is kino

[Anonymous No.23170098]

Classics are often really cheap on the used market.