How much is too much?

[lostguide]

I thinking of buying couple of books, I am doing PhD so books are for my studies but would be used well after I finish it, both hard back reference books, but they around £140 each.

Why academic books so costly?, secondhand ones are the same price sometimes more.

I know people say books go out of date, but my friends spend £1000's on software packages for their studies half of which are now discounted or superseded.

Anyway what do you think are books good investment?

 

[gregorach]

Kinda depends on how much money you have to spend... I recently spent £45 on Rachel Bromwich's Triads of the Island of Britain (reduced from £65) and I consider it money well spent - but I could easily afford it. I suppose it also depends on how likely they are to become badly obsolete....

I think the main reason such books are so expensive is that they only sell in fairly small quantities.

 

[hedgepig]

Pretty much the reason!

I'm taking a short break from finishing off the manuscript for my first book (deadline next week! ) - the initial print run is fairly small and makes money for the publisher and the retailer ... but not me. With much larger print runs the price would drop ...

It's the difference between niche market and mass market. I could go into he economics but I might bore you ... and myself!

 

[malente]

I would keep the books to a minimum. It depends on the subject area of course. But in Britain, most unis, you should get most books via the library. When you do a PhD, the librarian is your best friend! Try to get by with a few core books and find all the seminal articles in your field.

Mike

 

[Hoodoo]

I would keep the books to a minimum. It depends on the subject area of course. But in Britain, most unis, you should get most books via the library. When you do a PhD, the librarian is your best friend! Try to get by with a few core books and find all the seminal articles in your field.

Mike

I'd agree with that. Photocopy the chapters that you need for your research.

 

[gregorach]

But then you don't get the nice warm glow of looking at your sagging bookshelves! And there's always the extra stuff that you didn't think you needed at the time, but which turns out to be either useful or just plain interesting on subsequent re-reading.

 

[malente]

But then you don't get the nice warm glow of looking at your sagging bookshelves! And there's always the extra stuff that you didn't think you needed at the time, but which turns out to be either useful or just plain interesting on subsequent re-reading.

Oh Very true!