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The finalists for the 2015 Hugo Awards were announced on April 4, 2015. Who deserves the prize for Best Novel?
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(Score: 2) by VLM on Sunday June 07 2015, @11:39AM
WRT price, I find it fascinating that for decades the price of a mid-range restaurant cheezeburger is roughly the price of a paperback book. Has something to do with the cost of shipping a given mass and volume, and the amount of water and crude oil needed to make it, or something like that.
Not being more expensive than other stuff doesn't help if median standard of living peaked in 1970 for energy reasons. Then its just one more expensive thing. But it does show its not unusually expensive compared to stuff in completely unrelated industries. Its not like higher ed increasing in price 10%/yr "because they know the .gov will pay up no matter what". Book price increases are legitimate.
Oh well, books were fun while it lasted.
My public library has about 32K sci fi volumes or at least it did last time I went. Thats based on over 1000 books per tall double sided book shelf four book case long and about eight rows of sci fi. Most are older shovelware not worth reading, but there is also plenty of good stuff, all free. I'm not sure there's 32K titles worth stocking; there is substantial duplication, they must have a half dozen copies of Dune.
Also my local used book store sells for somewhat less than half price and their purchase price handles the cost of gas and sales tax, so its still cheaper than amazon. Admittedly half price means you get last decade's books for last decades price, today, so its still not free but not awful.