To think there’s no hope anymore financially after seeing the price of this…?!

If you're earning 100k and don't have much spare money you are obviously prioritising something else other than books.

For people who prioritise books will find the money.

Or like many pp have said, go to the library, buy second hand or wait for reductions/paperback.

I think in my head, relatively new paper backs at £10-£15 and hard backs are £20. I'm a slow reader so don't buy books very often (and people tend to do well in buying me books I like).

@Stowickthevast “think my author friend earns 20p for every £20 hardback he sells”

What?! That’s horrific. I had no idea it was as low as that. I’d assumed the author’s cut would be around 10%.

I've been paying £25 or so for general hardbacks for a few years now and specialist non-fiction can set you back £40+.

Still worth it though.

I get my books from my local library or more rarely from charity shops.

No need to pay such ridiculous prices.

You are right that the cost of everything seems crackers now. I went to buy a jar of instant coffee the other day because my mum likes it and is staying over Christmas. £7! For Nescafé!

Equally, all this chat about you be better off if you didn’t work and didn’t have all the stress seems daft to me. On £100k you can afford a £22 book. On benefits you certainly could not.

Also, who buys hardback books anyway? They’re really awkward to hold. I only read paperbacks and usually then from the library or our local books swap. My book spend is very small – which is probably why the industries on its knees!

If it's a novel, I usually wait until they're reduced or come out in paperback. Waterstones often has a fiver off.

However, I tend to read mainly more specialist none fiction things and £20 would be cheap for that. I currently want a series of three books, the first released being £130

20 years ago Terry Pratchett's Discworld books were £18 for hardbacks (and on poor quality paper, so you weren't buying longevity of the book itself, just quicker access to the book instead of waiting for it to come out in paperback).

My friend spent 3 years researching and writing a history book. She gets £1 for each book sold. Even if sales amounted to, say, 5,000 books a year, her "wage" for those 3 years would work out at about 5p an hour. Be grateful for your six-figure salary.

I pay £1.60 for 250g Sainsbury's butter with my weekly delivery.

Gosh this would be hilarious if it wasn't actually sadly indicative of greater issues (badly paid jobs, cost of living amongst other things)

@Suteleynot sounds like you're saying losing your job wouldn't have much impact on your life? How would you pay for the essentials, housing for a start?

Mine is 0930-1300 Monday-Thursday. Apart from the holidays my kids never get to go, I can’t leave work during breaks to go, it seems pointless it even being there at all.

DP has got me 13 books for Christmas, all hardbacks and ranging in price from £6 to £20 each. I don’t think £22 is expensive or any different to what hardback books cost 5 years ago

It’s a good excuse to start using your local library - and it’s certainly a case of use them or lose them, so a good way to support the service for other users too. Aside from the books, they’re essential for old folks as a warm safe space, to allow internet access to people who don’t have it at home, for kids doing homework, and so on.

My local library is only open 9-3 Mon-Weds. When I’m at work. I’d love the opportunity to love it 😁

I love love love my library. I watch as inflation pushes all my favourite treats up but the library is still completely free.

I’m grateful for Amazon because I can’t justify spending full price for new books even though I would like to support my local bookshop. Just the way it is.

I told a pack of butter to fuck off in Tesco - it was £3.15! An ordinary 250g pack of unsalted butter!

That's more than doubled the price in, what, a year? Was £1.50 or there aviation not standard up u til this year?

Mad.

I saw a thank you card value £12 and nothing very special or elaborate. Crazy is an understatement.

I actually disagree about books and say this as a lifelong reader. Books in this country are cheaper than in some other countries, e.g Australia where my mother is where £17 or so is standard for a paperback.

When you consider how long a book takes to write and all the people involved in its publication from editors to printers and publishers, they're actually pretty good value. Also writers get a fraction of the cost of a hardback, I think my author friend earns 20p for every £20 hardback he sells.

When I was a kid, books were far more expensive compared to earnings and were considered more of a luxury item. I read a lot from various libraries and second hand.

Now you can get Kindle books reasonably cheaply, massive second hand on line books like World of Books and eBay, as well as libraries and bookshops putting offers on to compete with the above.

YANBU OP. Books felt like an affordable luxury to me when I was younger and absolutely skint- yes hardbacks and non-fiction was expensive, but paperback fiction seemed like something I could pick up on a fortnightly basis at £6.99 or £7.99.

Now some paperback fiction is about £15, and it does make me feel I can't take the same risk on a new author etc (although I do also use my library, which helps- use them or lose them!)

Wait for the paperback.
buy books in charity shops
use the library

books were always expensive. I used to save for months to buy a book by my favourite author when I was a child.

Oh stop it. You're on a relatively enormous wage, you can afford the book if you actually wanted to.
But just get it from the library and stop moaning.

Dont buy from Amazon.
Support your local independent bookshop. Or borrow from the library.

My son's secondary school "closed" their school library end of last year because they couldn't afford replacement books.😪 What a sad state of affairs. The only good thing is that the kids now walk to the local library once a week and choosing books has become a bit of a weekly event, even amongst the 14yr olds. My son says they all talk about what book they want to get or did get. I've heard annecdotally that is has also taken the pressure of the kids who arent reading to the same age as their class mates.

So whilst it is awful that a school cant provide books, it has hopefully resulted in a love of library trips.

I got a lovely floral Christmas bouquet from Tesco yesterday half price at £10 in the reduced flowers section. Looked just as good as the £20 bouquet. Shop around!