The Trouble with Books
by Some may regard books superior to other media and that we shouldn’t spend our money on expensive televisions. But actually they may be more expensive.
I have decided I cannot retire. If I do, I shall never be able to keep myself in books. Even a trip to the library could become prohibitively expensive – especially if the current government does do with away with free travel for over-sixties. You see, I read extremely quickly. A heavy academic book lasts two days, a pot-boiler romance or aga-saga about one and a half and a 150-page Young Adult novel — an afternoon on the beach. I have spent years writing and marking students’ work as quickly as possible and reading vast tomes of specialised content to find the one gem of information which will greatly enhance the academic paper I am writing. This has turned me into a very fast reader.
Reading is my default activity. So, on retirement, I would read a lot. The maths is frightening. Even buying second-hand costs. For example, getting €2.00 back for the book I paid €4.00 for and getting €1.00 for a new book I introduce to my local bookshop still leaves me spending at least €4.00 per time. And I’m not even convinced that buying books second-hand is acceptably moral: what happens to the poor old author’s royalties? So, new is the alternative and books I read cost between £4.99 and £35.00 each. A Sky-box works out a lot cheaper.
Just think of the times we’ve argued “Why do they need all of that? Why can’t they just read a book?” Answer: they can’t afford to. At least much-maligned Ted Smart and his Book People circus have attempted to bring cheaper books to the people.
My husband and I had a canny idea. When we retire, he will take up writing too. Then we can read each other’s. Perhaps we could form a co-operative where we produce books for each other – cutting out all the middle men – the editors, publishers, booksellers.
Ah! Isn’t that what the web does? It does, and there’s even some form of quality control. The trouble is not all that many of us like to read a novel on a screen. Not sitting at a desk at least.
I actually suspect the answer to my problem is in the technology. If the e-readers and their content became sensible in price, but still reward the author sufficiently, my problem might go away and I could retire gracefully.
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