Books Need Not Cost an Arm and a Leg

Re “Big Social Cost in the High Price of Books,” Voices, Dec. 4: I think G. Lloyd Helm’s worry about the high price of books is misplaced. If one has the desire to read and seek knowledge, there is an abundance of books to be had for little or no money. There is a glut of used books out there, and for $25 you can probably get a two-foot stack of hardbacks that were in Barnes & Noble last year. Social concern should be about the demand for literature and not what publishers decide to charge for new material.

Gordon Brindell

Santa Clara

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Thanks to Helm, who makes a cogent argument for both a comprehensive system of education that will ensure a literate citizenry and for a lowering of book costs. No doubt Helm is an inveterate bibliophile who early in his life learned the incomparable rewards of reading. Literacy has intrinsic value and a practicality that allows for personal pleasure and creativity, an expansion of the imagination, the honing of critical thought and the enhancement of employment opportunities, as well as education. Like Helm, I love books and consider myself fortunate to own a substantial home library. Though I have books that have been purchased new, many are secondhand. But the accelerating cost of new books is difficult to ignore. The combination of falling rates of literacy and increased prices for books does not bode well for any republic that supposedly stands on and for democratic principles. The curtailment of hours for public libraries only compounds the problem of illiteracy. Publishers, educators, politicians and concerned citizens would do well to heed Helm’s timely alarm.

Joe Martin

Seattle

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Has Helm never heard of the public library? Do they not have used book stores, thrift shops or yard sales in Lancaster? Never in the history of mankind have so many cheap or free books been so readily available. There are places where you can buy books by the linear foot for pennies. There are so many books, people throw them away every day.

Michael Foti

Lakewood

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Kudos to Helm for identifying a major stealth scandal. I take down from my bookshelf a paperback copy of “The Universe and Dr. Einstein” by Lincoln Barnett that I bought about 1954 for 35 cents. Given the general rise in consumer prices over the last 50 years, I should be able to buy the comparable book today for about $2, maybe $2.50, only in some used-book store. The new price would be at least $5, twice the rate of inflation. Those of us who have been buying books for 50 years are well aware of this change ... a marketing coup ... but a cultural blow.

Sam Taylor

Duck, N.C.