I don't know about the whole of UK, but at least for London people read more than most other big cities I've been to. My theory is that because the tube never have coverage, people have kept reading books instead of staring into the phone. (not that you can't download stuff beforehand, but you can't doomscroll)
Joking aside. Second-hand books should be a mainstay. Even British supernarkets have a little table where books can be bought for a donation to charity. You can also donate books to a library. I was reading the Odd Thomas series from my local library. There was one book they had difficulty finding for me. I went out and bought it, and after I read it, I gave it to the library so that someone can borrow the whole series.
I bought the next book in a series the library didn't have yet (US library). I wanted to donate it so it could become part of their collection. Nope. They accepted it for their "friends of the library" charity sales which helps support the library. The librarian said that because the library is a government entity, they have to buy the books.
In the UK we do not pay tax on printed materials (eg. Reading books ,text books,magazines, newspapers etc); this may account for why we pay less gor books.
@@nessesaryschoolthing Yes, I remember Farage talking about that on the news. And all the while he knew full well it was already on the list of rules to abolish by then, in the EU. But he kept nagging on about it. Also he kept promising that if you went out of the EU, immigration would come to a stop... Like that had anything to do with the EU. In fact, I hear immigration has all but hundredfold since then. But he knew xenophobia always works 🙄
The USD price she shared will be pre-tax (it’s a similar price here in Canada - making it even more expensive since the exchange rate between the US and Canada is so bad - before tax, which is added at when you check out)
You want more proof of this, I am British. My entire family complain how many books I own, most of them come from charity shops. I went in one the other day and saw an entire series of books that I haven’t read but knew of and wanted to read. The shelf said £1 for paperback, £1.50 for hardbacks. I left there with 6 books for under £10! (And they're hardbacks) this wasnt even my usual charity shop where the manager literally knows me and goes "We need to restock the shelves" because I have left with 20 books from there in one go on more than one occasion! And any Americans trying to do the exchange maths it tends to be around 80p is $1 so £1.50 is under $2!
Germany has fixed book prices, so retailers aren't at liberty to change prices. The tax is also lower, because books are considered part of culture and education items, which have a lower tax
As someone who has lived in the UK most of my life, I was horrified to learn the price of books in the US! I thought the prices I was seeing factored in the high shipping costs, but no. Most of my books come from charity shops (thrift stores) and cost £1-2 but even with UK prices, buying books at full price is still a luxury to me, so for now I will be a reader of US ebooks!
That's why almost all of my books were acquired from thrift stores, garage sales, or second bookstores. A lot of them I got at the book nook which is this book store inside our public library where the books I read are 25 or 50 cents a book. I also got a lot of books when they were cleaning out my school library as a kid. You could get as many books as you could fit in a grocery bag for either 50 cents or a dollar. I can't remember which. I got like 3 or 4 bags of books. The only books I paid full price for were my Rick Riordan books because I read them as they were coming out. Though my mom bought them for me so I technically didn't buy those, I just have them, lol.
I remember buying a book in a US airport because my plane was delayed by ten hours and I didn't have a smartphone back in 2013. Had to choose between spending $20 on a book or having nothing to do except listen to an MP3 player for ten hours. I bought the book 😂😭
I made a couple of big orders form Waterstones a year. Usually when a new release has a better cover than the US version or it’s a book that isn’t published in the US. Always worth it and the cheaper prices equal out the shipping costs.
The Works is such a good deal for new books but almost all of them have those 'stickers' advertising netflix deals or book awards that are actually just part of the cover and dont come off it drives me nuts.
The Works books aren't the highest quality I must say - a lot seemed to be random books on Wicca and related things and a book of myths that was just wrong - they're good presents for kids or teens but not very well researched. Not sure about their novels though
@@Char10tti3the Works don't publish books, to my knowledge. They're just a book shop. If you go in there and buy a crap book, it'll be crap. But you can also buy books from well known authors, both fiction and non-fiction.
@@charliebrown1184 while her ebooks are more affordable, you have to consider that the cost of british ebooks is also a lot lower. It's hard to justify paying what we would normally pay for a physical book for an ebook that by all accounts we would expect to have been between £1-£5. I also want to read Daindreths but am waiting until a good sale comes up or I find it second hand.
I mean, it's not the ONLY reason I moved to the UK (😁), but it's true, books ARE cheaper here. So are restaurant meals. Unless you're in London. 'There are two Englands. There is London, and there is the rest of the country.' (And, of course, three other entirely different countries!)
I hear restaurant meals are cheaper in the US because bigger portions and the costs usually is in the tip. I've never heard of meals in the UK being cheaper before
Also in supermarkets, you used to get really popular books for £4 each and 2 for £7. I'm now laughing at how outraged I was when they recently went up to £4 50 and 2 foe £8. To keep with your comparison, they do sell ACATAR often in them for these prices. Crazy
I am German speaking and once there was the book, Ruby Red from a German Author, the book in German was 9.99 in English the same book on the same homepage was 4.99
I don’t remember books being especially cheap in the uk when I visited, but I think the prices were about comparable to the Australian book prices, which is certainly more than I could say for the food. So next time I go to the uk, imma stock up on books I guess
There used to be a Net Book Agreement in the UK which was an agreement between UK publishers and Book Sellers that specified minimum prices. (Publishers would not provide books to any supplier that tried to sell below the agreed price). This meant that all paperbacks and hardbacks could sell at a similar price (essentially blockbuster books could subsidise lesser known books) . This was deemed illegal in the 90s as it restricted free trade, (the thought was also that price competition would bring more people into book stores!) however removing it allowed supermarkets to start selling blockbuster books at a loss, and resulted in a significant number of independent booksellers going out of business and a reduction in what is immediately available as bookstores focus on genres that are most likely to sell (you generally can still get other books especially at independents if you ask at the counter and they order them in). There have been calls over the years to bring it back but that doesn't seem likely to occur anytime soon even though removing it basically had the opposite outcome to what was intended.
i discovered this when i went to london for the first time earlier this year. the average price of a book was probably around half of what i’m used to in my home country - and this was in waterstones, so not even a cheap secondhand shop (nothing wrong with secondhand shops ofc). i just wish i’d known this before travelling there, because i would have made room to bring back 2-3 books, instead of just the one i got :’)
Yup, I was really looking forward to your hardcover set of DA, and then when the price came up to be $300, I was like... whaaat? Didn't expect even half of it. But then it turned out you can't even ship to all of Europe, so that at least spared me the dilemma... :D That aside, there's a bunch of UK-based sellers on eBay and Amazon that sell books with very affordable shipping rates, at least here to the continent. Not sure if it would still pay off with shipping to the USA, though...
I was in England this Summer and came back with Kinnes 10 Books. It felt Like Heaven Shopping These Books and dont have to Pay half of your Money for one Book (I am from Germany and wie mostly dont have Paperbacks so the Most Books Costello around 16-24€😭)
And here in Sydney (Australia) we have one of the highest prices for books in the English speaking world. It helps my own personal book goblin agree to go outside to the library more, but a lot of books I want to read aren't AT the library, so T.T
I got a few british books from the thrift store here in the Netherlands, sticker with original pricing was still on the back. I was in shock at the prices! I was looking into preordering Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros, saw that amazon UK was asking HALF the price of Amazon NL and other Dutch retailers😱 I tried ordering off the UK for UK prize and hav it shipped to the Netherlands, unfortunately that doesn't work😢
I'm a Brit how moved to the Netherlands a year and a half ago. It's so sad you have to pay for libraries and the books are expensive and I can barely find any English books that aren't the new Penguin classic hardcovers which aren't cheap. Also I wanted to read Austin and Dickens and I only found Pride and Prejudice and A Tale of Two Cities... it's so hard to find them and then they're €20 😅 I think I'll probably get a new ereader and go for Project Gutenberg books
Guess I need to find a way to make all my clothes for the trip fit in the bag that goes underneath the seat and fill my suotcase with books when I visit the uk
I am so jealous of you brits! I'm from Sweden so most english books, which is the main demographic of books I read because I want to read in the original language, are so expensive. I get that they have to be as they are imported but I paid almost 30 usd for a book. The paperback version being around 20-22 usd. I can't afford this and as I live in the middle of fucking nowhere foorget that our library has anything.
@@Ruthavecflute I'm not very up to date with ebook prices as I don't read ebooks. I've tried reading digital but it just dosen't work for me and as I tend to read in the evening to wind down reading on a screen is a little counter intuitive
Fair enough. Amazon were doing an e-reader had no back light, fyi, so it was more like reading paper. I don't know if they still make them, and obviously the reader is a big up front cost.
So interesting! In 1990 , books were Way cheaper in the US vs the UK -- a British professor once told me that he would take an extra empty suitcase if and when he traveled to the US , to buy and carry home books! I wonder when this flipped? 🤔
Weird. For us, imported US books are much cheaper than ones from the UK. But all the booksellers only seem to import from the UK. Books really are a luxury item.
As a Brit that's very cheap. RRP I see is sometimes £7.99 for YA and £13 for adult novels, but usually they're all sold around £7.99 on sale. Some of the issue is Waterstones being pretty shady even releasing books before their embargos and keeping costs down because they're basically the only book chain store out there and they usually have several floors and cafes.
Best until you slip on either the massive book pile, or tread on the three pronged plug ... but we have universal healthcare so maybe it heals the inevitable wounds
When you said the book was $19 I guessed that in the UK a book like that would be around £8, so pretty close. And yeah, buying books is great. Also though there aren't as many as there used to be, there are still a lot of second hand bookshops, where you can find absolute classics for a few pounds. Pre aged with that wonderful old book smell, and sometimes cute dedications written in the front, like "To John, Happy Birthday, 1975"
I've always found UK paperback prices to be pretty standard. A paperback is £10 or less and a hardback is around £20. Big or small it's roughly the same
I ordered a special edition box set of three hardcovers from the UK to canada and even with the the exchange rate and shipping it was basically the same price as buying three regular hardcovers from my local shop.
Charity shops are also cheaper again. You can get second-hand books for £1 or £2 quite often. The only problem is that generally, the same selection of books end up in charity shops (tom clancy, noughts and crosses etc).
Just don't move down here in the south east, or you'll be spending that book money on extortionate housing instead! Also the people and the scenery are nicer up north anyway 😅
Going to use your example book to check prices based on danish online bookstores: saxo: 99.95 kroner (89.95 for monthly premium membership) 13.92 usd/12.53 usd williamdam: 119 kroner / 16.57 usd tales: 178.95 kroner / 24.93 (i haven't been in a physical bookstore in ages so I have no idea of the price there. Saxo is probably the cheapest still?)
it's worth noting though the price varies a lot depending on book edition and hardcovers. I've found books that were cheaper with tales or williamdam, especially some hardcover that was most expensive on saxo. So i always try checking the prices to get the best price available.
Not sure if it's true, but that reasoning could fit for the UK author behind the Jack Reacher media writes in a US-based fantasy genre. If Wikipedia is accurate on the man behind the pen name.
Yeah… The US makes it a lot expensive to get books from anywhere, but we don’t talk about Canada people right now they’re chilling. It’s stupid how you can get five books for less by fifty to seventy percent off at different places. But most books in the US are gonna get banned from places like B&N in all states so book prices are most likely to go up by a lot. I also have a question about a certain book genre if you read my comment
U know why UK and Germany is 2. and 3.? Because all us EU people used the UK for our book purchases, but since they up and left the EU we now use Germany to avoid import taxes
I also want to know how much of that goes to the author... Seriously I'm thinking of publishing my books on my site only, behind a cheap paywall. I know no isbn, but it can't be banned in the US for having a diverse cast
Already here! Bought my brother TWO books from Waterstones for Christmas, because just one is too cheap to be a proper gift! (Yes, I am totally trying to provoke jealousy in Book Goblin! Provoked Book Goblins are fun! 😅)
Meanwhile, in NEW ZEALAND! TWENTY-FIVE TO THIRTY DOLLARS VARYING, EXTRA TEN DOLLARS FOR TRADE-PAPERBACKS!!! Also, get this: the new PJO special edition? SIXTY NZD!!! WHAT THE HELL
19$ for a paperback?? And you still need to add taxes to that, right? That's crazy. Like, even with taxes I don't think I've ever seen a paperback b ing close to this expensive here in Germany. Most is like 15€ (that's like ~16$?) qnd I'd probably ecoff and not buy it hahaha
Now i.agine outside of that side of the world. Really, here books are... More or less now... Around that prices but that is more than one we day of minimun wage so unless you belong to the mithycal middle class (that is almost non existent in real life) books are luxuries and we do not have so great libraries either... 💔 A real shame we have come to this, to return to the time culture is a luxury.
I think you hit the nail on the head. Countries where books are cheaper have higher readership. Education is also a factor. The better the public education system, the greater the adult literacy, the higher the national readership levels. America's adult literacy level has been declining in the last forty years. The price of books has risen. This is not accidental. Its purpose has finally been fulfilled... America reelected Donald Trump...🤦🏼♀️
As a former English supply teacher, the British education system is not doing too well, either. If I had a pound for every time I asked a student, 'So, did you enjoy the book you chose from the library?' 'Yes, miss.' 'Oh good! What was it about?' (Hey, I want to know if I want to read it; I'm not above YA 😆) 'Ummm . . . I don't remember, miss.' You - literally just finished the book!
No. Public libraries in the UK need more funding and schools teach for exams and usually skip over grammar and don't really care about if a kid is reading or not. A lot of counties have 98% literacy rates but there is way more at play in why people read books specifically
It's because they pay us absolute rubbish in the UK! Look up how much different careers make in each country. The US pays its workers usually double if not more for the same job! Take it from someone who has lived in both countries for many years each. Books are very expensive here in the UK if you only make UK money.
The US has lower or no minimum wage, have to pay out themselves for insurance or doctors costs and university is so much more expensive than the £9,500 cap per year there is in the UK. Books don't have taxes on them, and we still operate free public libraries. Hardbacks are where the money is going now when people have it, so having cheaper paperbacks for younger people and people with less money isn't a bad thing. Also there isna massive culture of giving away books and donating them to charity shops so the price will stay low
As a brit I never knew this and will never complain about books being expensive again
I don't know about the whole of UK, but at least for London people read more than most other big cities I've been to. My theory is that because the tube never have coverage, people have kept reading books instead of staring into the phone. (not that you can't download stuff beforehand, but you can't doomscroll)
Joking aside. Second-hand books should be a mainstay.
Even British supernarkets have a little table where books can be bought for a donation to charity.
You can also donate books to a library.
I was reading the Odd Thomas series from my local library. There was one book they had difficulty finding for me. I went out and bought it, and after I read it, I gave it to the library so that someone can borrow the whole series.
That is so thoughtful of you!
What's fun is when you get books from libraries. I have a book about the Bermuda Triangle in the Great Lakes that has a library stamp.
I bought the next book in a series the library didn't have yet (US library). I wanted to donate it so it could become part of their collection. Nope.
They accepted it for their "friends of the library" charity sales which helps support the library.
The librarian said that because the library is a government entity, they have to buy the books.
I've only read the 3rd book of Odd Thomas and am looking to start from book 1. 😅 Its difficult to find here lol
In the UK we do not pay tax on printed materials (eg. Reading books ,text books,magazines, newspapers etc); this may account for why we pay less gor books.
That would make sense, since here in Switzerland, books are HELLA expensive, and they're treated as a luxury good.
Really? Like no tax at all? In Belgium, books are VAT 21% 😭
Ironic that we rebelled against you, in part, because of the Stamp Act putting a tax on printed materials, and now you don't even do that but we do.
@@nessesaryschoolthing Yes, I remember Farage talking about that on the news. And all the while he knew full well it was already on the list of rules to abolish by then, in the EU. But he kept nagging on about it.
Also he kept promising that if you went out of the EU, immigration would come to a stop... Like that had anything to do with the EU. In fact, I hear immigration has all but hundredfold since then.
But he knew xenophobia always works 🙄
The USD price she shared will be pre-tax (it’s a similar price here in Canada - making it even more expensive since the exchange rate between the US and Canada is so bad - before tax, which is added at when you check out)
You want more proof of this, I am British. My entire family complain how many books I own, most of them come from charity shops. I went in one the other day and saw an entire series of books that I haven’t read but knew of and wanted to read. The shelf said £1 for paperback, £1.50 for hardbacks. I left there with 6 books for under £10! (And they're hardbacks) this wasnt even my usual charity shop where the manager literally knows me and goes "We need to restock the shelves" because I have left with 20 books from there in one go on more than one occasion! And any Americans trying to do the exchange maths it tends to be around 80p is $1 so £1.50 is under $2!
Heaven!!!
I volunteer in a local charity bookshop, our paperbacks are mostly £1.50 but we do a 4 for £5 deal, so you can easily get 8 books for £10!
In charity shops I see books typically prices at $2 each
Man, I need to take a trip with some trusty suitcases sometime...
my charity shop has 50p books, 3 for £1 offer. blank paper is more expensive lmao. maybe its just because not enough people are reading.
Germany has fixed book prices, so retailers aren't at liberty to change prices. The tax is also lower, because books are considered part of culture and education items, which have a lower tax
As someone who has lived in the UK most of my life, I was horrified to learn the price of books in the US! I thought the prices I was seeing factored in the high shipping costs, but no.
Most of my books come from charity shops (thrift stores) and cost £1-2 but even with UK prices, buying books at full price is still a luxury to me, so for now I will be a reader of US ebooks!
That's why almost all of my books were acquired from thrift stores, garage sales, or second bookstores. A lot of them I got at the book nook which is this book store inside our public library where the books I read are 25 or 50 cents a book. I also got a lot of books when they were cleaning out my school library as a kid. You could get as many books as you could fit in a grocery bag for either 50 cents or a dollar. I can't remember which. I got like 3 or 4 bags of books. The only books I paid full price for were my Rick Riordan books because I read them as they were coming out. Though my mom bought them for me so I technically didn't buy those, I just have them, lol.
I remember buying a book in a US airport because my plane was delayed by ten hours and I didn't have a smartphone back in 2013. Had to choose between spending $20 on a book or having nothing to do except listen to an MP3 player for ten hours. I bought the book 😂😭
I made a couple of big orders form Waterstones a year. Usually when a new release has a better cover than the US version or it’s a book that isn’t published in the US. Always worth it and the cheaper prices equal out the shipping costs.
We also have a shop called the works and books there are even cheaper
They do a deal where you can get 3 for £6 on a lot of popular paperbacks
Emily, that is dangerous knowledge for us US-based book goblins!
The one in our village closed a couple of years back . . . RIP 😢
The Works is such a good deal for new books but almost all of them have those 'stickers' advertising netflix deals or book awards that are actually just part of the cover and dont come off it drives me nuts.
The Works books aren't the highest quality I must say - a lot seemed to be random books on Wicca and related things and a book of myths that was just wrong - they're good presents for kids or teens but not very well researched. Not sure about their novels though
@@Char10tti3the Works don't publish books, to my knowledge. They're just a book shop. If you go in there and buy a crap book, it'll be crap. But you can also buy books from well known authors, both fiction and non-fiction.
That's the only reason I haven't read the Daindreths assassin series yet. It's too expensive being twice the cost for the range of books in the UK.
I recommend the ebooks, they're a lot more affordable!
I know, I feel the same way I’m in too minds about paying £22 for a paperback, it’s bad enough trying to decide on one for £8.99 😅
@charliebrown1184 I agree, you are right. It's just that there is something that just feels good about having a physical copy in your hands
@@charliebrown1184 while her ebooks are more affordable, you have to consider that the cost of british ebooks is also a lot lower. It's hard to justify paying what we would normally pay for a physical book for an ebook that by all accounts we would expect to have been between £1-£5.
I also want to read Daindreths but am waiting until a good sale comes up or I find it second hand.
I got the E-book, totally worth it
I mean, it's not the ONLY reason I moved to the UK (😁), but it's true, books ARE cheaper here. So are restaurant meals. Unless you're in London.
'There are two Englands. There is London, and there is the rest of the country.' (And, of course, three other entirely different countries!)
I hear restaurant meals are cheaper in the US because bigger portions and the costs usually is in the tip. I've never heard of meals in the UK being cheaper before
All hail Sean! Long may he live. May his heirs bring him pride and joy.
And join him in Bookhalla
Commonwealth nations get books even cheaper, from UK imprints. In India, that same book has a cover price of 7 USD.
I never knew this, and suddenly Im happy to be British
Count me in! Any excuse to hop across the pond. Then I can stock up on Ribena, Rodda’s Clotted Cream and some other snackies 😊
I have noticed, it makes imported UK originals cheaper than local print translations by like 60%
Also in supermarkets, you used to get really popular books for £4 each and 2 for £7. I'm now laughing at how outraged I was when they recently went up to £4 50 and 2 foe £8. To keep with your comparison, they do sell ACATAR often in them for these prices. Crazy
That same book in Canada probably costs like 30 dollars.
* cries in canadian * they are so expensive 😭
I am German speaking and once there was the book, Ruby Red from a German Author, the book in German was 9.99 in English the same book on the same homepage was 4.99
I'm guessing that's about being able to print in bulk but wow that's harsh 😅
I don’t remember books being especially cheap in the uk when I visited, but I think the prices were about comparable to the Australian book prices, which is certainly more than I could say for the food. So next time I go to the uk, imma stock up on books I guess
Forget Waterstones in Asda it’s £4.99 or at least it was last time i was there
For context Asda is a UK supermarket owned by Walmart so it's that level of price and massive store.
There used to be a Net Book Agreement in the UK which was an agreement between UK publishers and Book Sellers that specified minimum prices. (Publishers would not provide books to any supplier that tried to sell below the agreed price). This meant that all paperbacks and hardbacks could sell at a similar price (essentially blockbuster books could subsidise lesser known books) . This was deemed illegal in the 90s as it restricted free trade, (the thought was also that price competition would bring more people into book stores!) however removing it allowed supermarkets to start selling blockbuster books at a loss, and resulted in a significant number of independent booksellers going out of business and a reduction in what is immediately available as bookstores focus on genres that are most likely to sell (you generally can still get other books especially at independents if you ask at the counter and they order them in). There have been calls over the years to bring it back but that doesn't seem likely to occur anytime soon even though removing it basically had the opposite outcome to what was intended.
i discovered this when i went to london for the first time earlier this year. the average price of a book was probably around half of what i’m used to in my home country - and this was in waterstones, so not even a cheap secondhand shop (nothing wrong with secondhand shops ofc).
i just wish i’d known this before travelling there, because i would have made room to bring back 2-3 books, instead of just the one i got :’)
Yup, I was really looking forward to your hardcover set of DA, and then when the price came up to be $300, I was like... whaaat? Didn't expect even half of it. But then it turned out you can't even ship to all of Europe, so that at least spared me the dilemma... :D
That aside, there's a bunch of UK-based sellers on eBay and Amazon that sell books with very affordable shipping rates, at least here to the continent. Not sure if it would still pay off with shipping to the USA, though...
I was in England this Summer and came back with Kinnes 10 Books. It felt Like Heaven Shopping These Books and dont have to Pay half of your Money for one Book (I am from Germany and wie mostly dont have Paperbacks so the Most Books Costello around 16-24€😭)
Paperbacks are up to $19?! It wasn't that long ago a paper ack was $6. That has majorly outpaced inflation.
So what you’re saying is we could import British books and make a profit
And here in Sydney (Australia) we have one of the highest prices for books in the English speaking world. It helps my own personal book goblin agree to go outside to the library more, but a lot of books I want to read aren't AT the library, so T.T
I got a few british books from the thrift store here in the Netherlands, sticker with original pricing was still on the back. I was in shock at the prices!
I was looking into preordering Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros, saw that amazon UK was asking HALF the price of Amazon NL and other Dutch retailers😱
I tried ordering off the UK for UK prize and hav it shipped to the Netherlands, unfortunately that doesn't work😢
I'm a Brit how moved to the Netherlands a year and a half ago. It's so sad you have to pay for libraries and the books are expensive and I can barely find any English books that aren't the new Penguin classic hardcovers which aren't cheap. Also I wanted to read Austin and Dickens and I only found Pride and Prejudice and A Tale of Two Cities... it's so hard to find them and then they're €20 😅 I think I'll probably get a new ereader and go for Project Gutenberg books
Guess I need to find a way to make all my clothes for the trip fit in the bag that goes underneath the seat and fill my suotcase with books when I visit the uk
I am so jealous of you brits! I'm from Sweden so most english books, which is the main demographic of books I read because I want to read in the original language, are so expensive. I get that they have to be as they are imported but I paid almost 30 usd for a book. The paperback version being around 20-22 usd. I can't afford this and as I live in the middle of fucking nowhere foorget that our library has anything.
What are ebook prices like? I know its not quite the same experience, but it might be worth looking into
@@Ruthavecflute I'm not very up to date with ebook prices as I don't read ebooks. I've tried reading digital but it just dosen't work for me and as I tend to read in the evening to wind down reading on a screen is a little counter intuitive
Fair enough. Amazon were doing an e-reader had no back light, fyi, so it was more like reading paper. I don't know if they still make them, and obviously the reader is a big up front cost.
And they have standardized book dimensions
Was just in the uk and wish I would have known this
So interesting! In 1990 , books were Way cheaper in the US vs the UK -- a British professor once told me that he would take an extra empty suitcase if and when he traveled to the US , to buy and carry home books! I wonder when this flipped? 🤔
I'm British I never knew the books at my book shop was cheap❤
Fun fact that explains part of this. Physical books in the UK are exempt from VAT (Value Added Tax) in an attempt to encourage reading.
Weird. For us, imported US books are much cheaper than ones from the UK. But all the booksellers only seem to import from the UK. Books really are a luxury item.
As a Brit that's very cheap. RRP I see is sometimes £7.99 for YA and £13 for adult novels, but usually they're all sold around £7.99 on sale. Some of the issue is Waterstones being pretty shady even releasing books before their embargos and keeping costs down because they're basically the only book chain store out there and they usually have several floors and cafes.
cheap books and best plug sockets in the world here. does it compensate for the weather? no, but we've got to have something.
Precisely! 😆
Best until you slip on either the massive book pile, or tread on the three pronged plug ... but we have universal healthcare so maybe it heals the inevitable wounds
Me glad to live in UK 😎.
When you said the book was $19 I guessed that in the UK a book like that would be around £8, so pretty close. And yeah, buying books is great.
Also though there aren't as many as there used to be, there are still a lot of second hand bookshops, where you can find absolute classics for a few pounds. Pre aged with that wonderful old book smell, and sometimes cute dedications written in the front, like "To John, Happy Birthday, 1975"
I've always found UK paperback prices to be pretty standard. A paperback is £10 or less and a hardback is around £20. Big or small it's roughly the same
Yeah I noticed that too, a 200 and 500 page is usually the same until it gets to hardback
No VAT on UK books
I ordered a special edition box set of three hardcovers from the UK to canada and even with the the exchange rate and shipping it was basically the same price as buying three regular hardcovers from my local shop.
I got ACOTAR for £5.50 last week haha!
Sooooo when Book Goblin tribe raid(trip)? 😂
Oh . . . So, they still have their paperbacks at a reasonable price. Well, I guess I'm moving to the UK.😁
Just hit up a Half Price Books. Of course I spent around $300 last time I went to one
Charity shops are also cheaper again. You can get second-hand books for £1 or £2 quite often. The only problem is that generally, the same selection of books end up in charity shops (tom clancy, noughts and crosses etc).
Just don't move down here in the south east, or you'll be spending that book money on extortionate housing instead! Also the people and the scenery are nicer up north anyway 😅
Even used books in the US are stupidly expensive. Like should be $1 or less
I live in Germany (and german is my mother tongue) and I often buy english books beacuse they are cheaper than books in German
All hail Sean!
ALL HAIL SEAN
And yet I complain so much. I'm clearly so ungrateful, wow.
in new zealand it's around $20-25 for a paperback (as far as i can remember)
Going to use your example book to check prices based on danish online bookstores:
saxo: 99.95 kroner (89.95 for monthly premium membership) 13.92 usd/12.53 usd
williamdam: 119 kroner / 16.57 usd
tales: 178.95 kroner / 24.93
(i haven't been in a physical bookstore in ages so I have no idea of the price there. Saxo is probably the cheapest still?)
it's worth noting though the price varies a lot depending on book edition and hardcovers. I've found books that were cheaper with tales or williamdam, especially some hardcover that was most expensive on saxo. So i always try checking the prices to get the best price available.
So, british book goblins are wilder. Is that what you are saying?
But are shelves cheaper over there, too?
We have tiny houses and book piles
If you think Britain is cheap, try India. Last time I went, the standard for most books was 400 rupees (approx eight dollars)
Oh damn and I thought UK books were kind of expensive. That said, I do feel we often get way worse covers.
I know its not the same hobby but most comic book omnibus editions retail for 125-150 USD so it could always be worse 😅
It's devastating! I just moved out of England!!
Not sure if it's true, but that reasoning could fit for the UK author behind the Jack Reacher media writes in a US-based fantasy genre. If Wikipedia is accurate on the man behind the pen name.
Yes your books are worth it ❤ love from Sweden
Let's go! My passport is in the mail... 😂
Thankyou for that explanation i wanted to buy your books but they were so expensive i now understand why and will save up
Yeah… The US makes it a lot expensive to get books from anywhere, but we don’t talk about Canada people right now they’re chilling. It’s stupid how you can get five books for less by fifty to seventy percent off at different places. But most books in the US are gonna get banned from places like B&N in all states so book prices are most likely to go up by a lot.
I also have a question about a certain book genre if you read my comment
I live 10 minutes from British Columbia. They come down to our bookstores! 😅
U know why UK and Germany is 2. and 3.? Because all us EU people used the UK for our book purchases, but since they up and left the EU we now use Germany to avoid import taxes
Try being Australian it’s around the 20.00 au mark and believe me compared to UsD or pounds its massive
I also want to know how much of that goes to the author... Seriously I'm thinking of publishing my books on my site only, behind a cheap paywall. I know no isbn, but it can't be banned in the US for having a diverse cast
Brit prices also include VAT, correct? So $19 +tax is the equivalence.
No VAT on books 😁
Would it be cheaper for me to buy books from a UK based store and just pay shipping.
In India you can get the book in less than 1 dollar
All hail Sean! For Bookhalla!
I just bought this for my birthday on a 2 for 9 deal
i remember when paperbacks were $8.99 is the US like 20 years ago 😮💨
Switzerland: Paperbook 18,90 chf, Hardcover 29.90 CHF
Special editions most of the time 40 CHF
Who's moving to UK with me😫😫😫😫😫😫😫
Already here!
Bought my brother TWO books from Waterstones for Christmas, because just one is too cheap to be a proper gift! (Yes, I am totally trying to provoke jealousy in Book Goblin! Provoked Book Goblins are fun! 😅)
@cmm5542 😫😫😫😫😫whyyyyyyyy
@@cmm5542Such cruelty!!! 😭💔😅
@T.babyhehehe❤ Don't worry - all books are FREE in Bookhalla! Keep going!
@cmm5542 😫😫😫😫 almost there
What is your shirt?
hoid for president. character from the cosmere :3 written by brandon sanderson
But I want to know the reasons 😢😢😢 maybe we can implement that elsewhere 😂
Yeah as a brit I suddenly feel quite bad that i moan about the cost of books especially at waterstones
Hear me out
Sooooooooooo
At Walmart u can get ACOTAR for 13-15 bucks
To be fair, EU books are similarly priced. The US is just far too expensive.
Meanwhile, in NEW ZEALAND!
TWENTY-FIVE TO THIRTY DOLLARS VARYING, EXTRA TEN DOLLARS FOR TRADE-PAPERBACKS!!!
Also, get this: the new PJO special edition? SIXTY NZD!!!
WHAT THE HELL
Is that a Homelander T-shirt?
no. hoid for president. character from the cosmere :3 written by brandon sanderson
WAIT YOURE IN AUSTIN???
Cries in Australian
You think USD is bad, trying to feed my book addiction in Canada is making me broke!!
Cries in Canadian book prices
19$ for a paperback?? And you still need to add taxes to that, right? That's crazy.
Like, even with taxes I don't think I've ever seen a paperback b ing close to this expensive here in Germany. Most is like 15€ (that's like ~16$?) qnd I'd probably ecoff and not buy it hahaha
I'm a brit that buys from American authors 😢
Taxes, is it taxes?
Yeah but why cheaper
HOID FOR PRESIDENNTTTT
Now i.agine outside of that side of the world. Really, here books are... More or less now... Around that prices but that is more than one we day of minimun wage so unless you belong to the mithycal middle class (that is almost non existent in real life) books are luxuries and we do not have so great libraries either... 💔 A real shame we have come to this, to return to the time culture is a luxury.
so i need to move to the U.K. this might be a joke
And then there's Australia
I think you hit the nail on the head.
Countries where books are cheaper have higher readership.
Education is also a factor.
The better the public education system, the greater the adult literacy, the higher the national readership levels.
America's adult literacy level has been declining in the last forty years.
The price of books has risen.
This is not accidental.
Its purpose has finally been fulfilled...
America reelected Donald Trump...🤦🏼♀️
As a former English supply teacher, the British education system is not doing too well, either.
If I had a pound for every time I asked a student, 'So, did you enjoy the book you chose from the library?' 'Yes, miss.' 'Oh good! What was it about?' (Hey, I want to know if I want to read it; I'm not above YA 😆) 'Ummm . . . I don't remember, miss.' You - literally just finished the book!
No. Public libraries in the UK need more funding and schools teach for exams and usually skip over grammar and don't really care about if a kid is reading or not. A lot of counties have 98% literacy rates but there is way more at play in why people read books specifically
Celebrates in german potato
It's because they pay us absolute rubbish in the UK! Look up how much different careers make in each country. The US pays its workers usually double if not more for the same job! Take it from someone who has lived in both countries for many years each. Books are very expensive here in the UK if you only make UK money.
The US has lower or no minimum wage, have to pay out themselves for insurance or doctors costs and university is so much more expensive than the £9,500 cap per year there is in the UK. Books don't have taxes on them, and we still operate free public libraries. Hardbacks are where the money is going now when people have it, so having cheaper paperbacks for younger people and people with less money isn't a bad thing. Also there isna massive culture of giving away books and donating them to charity shops so the price will stay low
you should come to india that would be less than 4 pounds
👁️👄👁️ come again
Sadly Americans could use encouragement to read more.
Crying in canadian prices
"Books are expensive in America."
[cries in Canadian]