I saw a lot of very cheap, horrible books today.

[Sunhawk !M9PhF5nIzs No.2411794]

All Wordsworth Classics, all £1.99, and all probably very bad. You know the kinda stuff they have in the range, mostly stuffy 19th century 'classics'.

The thing is, I'm dirt poor, so I'm actually thinking (sigh) about it. Opinions on this? I was gonna photograph the display and post it here, so you could see specifics, but it was some tiny bookstore, and the staff were watching me like sunhawks. What do you think?

[Anonymous No.2411797]

Stop buying new books.

[Sunhawk !M9PhF5nIzs No.2411802]

>>2411797

Yeah, but these books are the same price as the second-hand books they sell, so why not?

I saw a few books I'm vaguely interested in reading. In no order: Ulyssess, Moll Flanders, The Idiot, Vanity Fair, Mill Floss. That kinda stuff (yes, I know some are 20th century).

[Anonymous No.2411814]

I got an Oscar Wilde poetry collection from Wordsworth Classics for a buck. It's great.

[Anonymous No.2411815]

This may not come as any huge, big surprise or revelation, but, OP, you are a lousy faggot.

[Anonymuos No.2411823]

>>2411797
What? Unless you're cheap and/or poor, why would you NOT prefer a new book over a used one? I buy only the flawlesest, pristinest, crispest and untouchedest of them books.

[Anonymous No.2411825]

>>2411823

>why would you NOT prefer a new book over a used one?

1. Recycling of resources
2. Annotations. Having access to the private thoughts of a previous reader is pretty valuable to me.

[Sunhawk !M9PhF5nIzs No.2411837]

>>2411825

I think he was being sarcastic.

Although I would still rather get them new. I mean, why not?

[Anonymuos No.2411848]

>>2411825
>Recycling
Yeah, you recycle decrepit mold-eaten books by making new ones out of them.

>access to the private thoughts of a previous reader is pretty valuable to me
Not to me. I'm reading the book for the book itself not for the ramblings and doodles of some random guy.

[Anonymous No.2411862]

>>2411848

>Yeah, you recycle decrepit mold-eaten books by making new ones out of them.

Remember the three Rs of conservation, children. Reduce, reuse, recycle! Given in order of importance.

Reuse trumps your shitty new books.

>Not to me. I'm reading the book for the book itself not for the ramblings and doodles of some random guy.

Well, I actually like to think about what I read.

[Anonymous No.2411871]

>>2411837
to each his own. i have a field day anytime i shop on abebooks. so many good finds for so little. new books can really put a dent in your funds.
that said, i cherish my mint, hardcover copy of ulysses.

[Anonymous No.2411872]

I love the Wordsworth classics and the Dover books. friend of mine gave me three or fur hundred edge-stripped copies and I have read them and used them in research as much as just about any books I ever actually paid money for.

[Anonymous No.2411877]

>>2411862
>>2411825
MAJOR FAGGOT DETECTED

stop romanticising marginalia, it's garbage and anyone who vandalises their books like that is scum. last thing i need when i'm reading a good book is some faggot providing a jocose running commentary and underlining every damn sentence in green highlighter. fuck, i'm so glad i'm no longer a student and can afford crisp new vintage, penguin, and oxford editions.

[Anonymous No.2411882]

>>2411877

You should check your egotism.

[Anonymous No.2411887]

>>2411797

I have to agree with this.

The best way to help the economy, the ecology and your own personal financial situation is to buy as many things used as possible, when the overall quality is not substantially reduced by it's being used.

Garage sale books, clothes, furniture, toys, always checked for quality of course, are a million times more responsible in terms of the economy and ecology than buying a hybrid car or eating organic food, or any of the stuff you're told is good. A vigorous market in used material is also an antidote to corruption and a black market, since it keeps prices too low to interest thieves and racketeers, and it also helps bring down the price of new items.

Plus it saves money, so you can afford to buy the new stuff that really does make a difference to support, like more efficient heating and cooling technology, better computers and smartphones.

So buy as much used stuff as you can, especially media such as books, movies, music and games. Its a right you have, and it's good for the earth, the economy and your wallet.

The copyright holders may disagree, but they're wrong too,

sorry for the diatribe, but I teach this crap at the university, so i have to jump in whenever it comes up. Pavlovian, I know.

[Sunhawk !M9PhF5nIzs No.2411889]

>>2411877

Vintage 4 lyfe. I have an entire shelf of red spine Vintage books. I never understood why something called Vintage has books from the last 10 years, though.

>i do not think you know what that word means

[Anonymous No.2411892]

>>2411889
>I have an entire shelf of red spine Vintage books

pics or gtfo.

[Anonymous No.2411894]

Public library? Will no man say Amen?
You've already paid for it.
You don't have to have the burden of ownership.
Find, check out, read, return. Repeat.

[Anonymuos No.2411897]

>>2411887
>The best way to help the economy is to buy as many things used as possible
>I teach this crap at the university

[Anonymous No.2411902]

>>2411877

I bought a copy of Humphrey Clinker 18 months ago, I never got past page 50 because someone had highlighted most of the text in green, yellow, pink and orange highlighters.

[Anonymous No.2411909]

>>2411887
>good for the economy

[Anonymous No.2411916]

>>2411909
>>2411897

Anything that puts more disposable income into the pockets of the people at the bottom of the economy is good for the economy. That especially includes people who can't afford to buy media.

And anything that increases the access of the people at the bottom to information and culturally important material is also good for the economy. Anything that allows the bottom ten percent to have access to the same things that the top ten percent have access to is good for the economy.

I speak as a Republican, and am admittedly a little obsessive over practical economics.

[Anonymous No.2411924]

What's wrong with Wordsworth classics? If they are in the English language then you are getting the same shit that you would be getting if you bought some expensive copy of the same, presumably copyright free, novel.

Translations are a separate issue. Often if the translation is out of copyright it will be dated and crappy. It probably doesn't matter much for complete fiction like The Idiot but for some things like works of philosophy it can really kill the meaning with outdated language and sloppy translations.

I have a copy of Crime and Punishment that is a Penguin Popular Classic that is printed on what feels like cheap toilet paper and it doesn't even mention who the translator is. Still it was the first Dostoyevsky novel I read and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

To be honest though I don't really understand why you posted. You are buying stuff with dead authors. So why do you care who gets the money? Amazon sells books really cheap anyway and if all you want is cheap mass produced fiction then most second hand bookshop will sell you frayed copies of penguin classics that smell like death for mere pennies.

This shit it why I got a Kindle. Fuck paying for novels that no one owns any more.

[Anonymous No.2411932]

The Wordsworths are actually pretty good. As >>2411924 said, there's no reason to pay any more if you're getting English literature. The critical introductions are pretty good too, a lot were done by people at the University I study at who actually know what they're talking about.

[Anonymous No.2411995]

>>2411794
Have you opened some of them? I've thrown away unread Wordsworth Classics because of how shitty they are to read.

Classics ---> e-reader. There are no excuses. If you are actually poor the lack of material posessions will work in your benefit, since you have less to move the next time you get evicted.

[Anonymous No.2412014]

Wordsworth is pretty good, OP

[Anonymous No.2412024]

Why do Penguin charge £7.99 for a public domain book that's 100-200 pages? It's fucking ridiculous,

[Anonymous No.2412041]

You literally cannot beat the Dover Thrift Editions for high quality classic paperbacks.

And their format is not the smaller paperback for most of their offerings, but a medium sized trade book.

the book in the pic is $3.50 new

http://store.doverpublications.com/0486280500.html

[Anonymous No.2412047]

I generally buy books from charity shops (thrift stores). Most have a classics section and books are usually about £1. Saying that today I got 6 for £1 ( although I only really wanted a couple of them.)

[Anonymous No.2412052]

"watching me like sunhawks"
this has got to stop, buddy. go grab some fresh air with your lung bags outside.

[Anonymous No.2412057]

I have a wordsworth edition of an Edgar Allan Poe anthology and it's actually pretty good. Beyond the boring as fuck cover, the print quality is fine, there are notes (and they're actually pretty good - helpful when they need to be without treating the reader like a retard). The general quality and so on is better than a few full price books I've bought (especially sci-fi, fuck you whoever published my Asimov robot anthology) and it was only £2. Would recommend.

[Anonymous No.2412062]

>>2412057
>without treating the reader like a retard

God, I hate that. I find that Pevear and Volokhonsky are the worst for this.

[Anonymous No.2412100]

>>2412047
The Happy Return is great.