CHEAPER BOOKS
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Sin,—Though a soldier in a far-off land, I still have a certain interest in various questions which crop up at Home. I am faced, however, with the problem of getting books, not so much that they are unobtainable as that I cannot afford to buy the books I should like to read.
Is publishing really such an expensive business ? Take
a particular case, not a very bad one, but fresh in my mind : In your number of July 14th I read a review of a book which would interest me enormously, The Alcohol Problem, by A. M. Vernon, obtainable at 9s. in England. This means that I have to pay, if I get the book in India, Rs. 9, or some- thing like I 5s., plus a not negligible postage. This rules the book out at once.
I fully realize that Mr. Vernon must have taken a very great deal of trouble and spent much valuable time on the book, but is there not a chance that the financial result would be at least as great if it had been put within reach of a considerably larger number of rekders ? The same applies in a greater degree to many simaar books.-- I am, Si:, &c.,
INDIAN Ann Y.
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