For those paying attention, Hannan & Freeman's (1989) book has dropped to 65 bucks - hardback is only $90. Get it while it's available!

Hard to believe there are now five copies available when only months ago it would've cost you a few thousand.

Labels: books

So I'm thumbing through the latest issue of Amazon.com today looking for this book I'm interested in and I encountered a dilemma.

The book is An Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth, by Mahatma Gandhi. Now this guy's an important figure in my life so I'm thinking, maybe I should get a hardback? Wow - I never buy hardbacks! But wouldn't it be nice to have a classy edition of this book by such an amazing person - my hero, really (it's a shame that sounds like such an 11 year-old thing to say).

So I turned to the used books page. And the problem struck me: there are several oodles of different editions to choose from. Not only are there new and used versions, but hardback and paperback, old and recent, some with guest introductions, publisher X or Y. How's a guy supposed to pick one?

There are trade-offs, of course. New books are crisp and clean but more expensive and wasteful of our Earth's precious resources. But if I'm concerned about precious resources, maybe I should just borrow from the library or read the freakin' e-book version available there. But, alas, you can't make notes in the margins of an e-book or library book (I know, some people clearly dispel with that rule). Recent editions are likely to be in better shape and they do have that guest introduction, but again they're more expensive and maybe that introduction sucks and spoils an otherwise austere copy of Gandhiji's writing. Which publisher? I don't know! WWGD?

Here's where it got tricky for me. I stumbled across a used Houghton Mifflin paperback edition from 1983 selling for one red cent! What?! Shipping costs are 349% more than the cost of the book! Then I thought, Gandhi would probably be pleased to see this and disappointed that there's only one available at this price. It is worth noting, however, that there are currently 31 copies of this same edition under 5 bucks. How can I turn down a one-cent used book in favor of a new, fashionable, hardback version of the same book? And it's not just any book, but a book about Gandhi, Mr. LiveSimply!

What kind of an outfit sells books for one cent? There's no way this is a reputable business. Really, how can they recoup their costs? Maybe they're taking a loss on some books in order to drum up business and a good reputation while they gouge us on the equally overpriced books in their catalog. Maybe there's a demented old man at his computer somewhere, squeezed into a tiny apartment full of ragged old books. Do I trust this guy? For only one cent, does it really matter? In the comments section, my fears were assuaged: "Go with the name you can trust: Thriftbooks...".

Anyway, I went with the hardback.

Labels: books, Gandhi

If you were the head of a university press, notoriously known as they are for slim profit margins and small batch printing, and you learned that one of your out-of-print books has increased in value by more than 280%, would you consider reprinting it? What if you then learned that another university press has preempted your move by releasing a new and improved version of your product? Well, you'd be wise to become a used book seller.

Right now you can pick up a used copy of Hannan & Freeman's classic Organizational Ecology (1989) through Amazon for only $737.60! Not satified with just one copy? Order the second and only remaining copy for an additional $2,088.29!

Oh, and these are paperback editions. "Condition: Good."

So, does anyone out there have a copy of this that they'd care to sell? The bidding starts here (with a trivial commission for the host).

Update (9/6/06): You missed the cheap copy. The remaining copy is now up to $2,262.14. Aren't you just kicking yourself for not buying in earlier?

Labels: books, organizations, sociology

For fun this summer I picked up Sophie's World, a 1991 book by Oslo native and former high school philosophy teacher Jostein Gaardner. I finished it tonight after a couple-day marathon session to reach the end. It pulled me in. Subtitled A Novel About the History of Philosophy, it's a fictional account of a 15 year-old girl, Sophie, who begins receiving mysterious packets in the mail containing philosophy lessons. Cloaked in mystery, this private philosophy course takes her from prehistoric myths through Greece, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and Existentialism and little Sophie is in no uncertain terms blown away - quite unlike any college student I've so far taught - by what she learns. Gaardner playfully toys with his readers and his characters by introducing fantasy and magic with little guidance to distinguish what is real and what is fantasy. At heart Sophie's World paints an colorful picture of Western thought with broad strokes and language even a 15 year-old can understand. If you've studied philosophy and already know what Aquinas, Augustine, Spinoza, Hume, and Kierkegaard said, then don't bother. This is really for those of us who've never had a philosophy course and who may know a little about some of these folks but nothing about the "big picture." The back story - that is, the parts that aren't exegeses of Western philosophy - is slow until the mid-point, and the writing in those parts could be better. On the whole, though, it's a great book to cruise through if, like me, you feel guilty reading throwaway novels that teach you nothing. Now I'm ready for the grown-up version that Heather has been simultaneously reading, The Passion of the Western Mind.

Labels: books, Philosophy