You don’t need me to tell you that everything is more expensive in 2023, but what would you say if I told you that books might not be as expensive as they should be? That’s the case Brooke Warner makes in this piece about publishing’s retail price problem. Whereas the general cost of goods in the US has increased about 115% in the last 30 years—that is, a product that cost $1 in 1993 now costs about $2.15—the price of hardcover books has only increased about 8%. That’s a mere $2.05 increase from $24.95 in 1993 to $27 now. I’ll admit that my eyebrows go up when I see a new hardcover, like the copy of Hidden Potential by Adam Grant that landed on my doorstep this morning, priced at $32, but maybe I should think again. (That’s an Adam Grant joke, real heads know.)
“Still, we shouldn’t all be so squeezed when the cost of everything is going up all around us. This is not a call for price fixing, but a call for the industry to value our products for what they’re worth today, in 2023, with the context of the world around us and real costs.“
Classic Books for $200, Alex
In their latest interactive quiz, the folks at The New York Times are challenging us to identify passages from classic books. And there are only five questions, which is great for 2023 attention spans and stressful because you can only miss one without getting a failing grade, which is absolutely how literary quizzes on the internet work.
A Glossy New Adaptation
If “The Devil Wears Prada for the Bad Blood generation” sounds like an ideal TV experience to you, you’re in luck. Marisa Meltzer’s Glossy, an inside look at beauty brand Glossier, is headed to Amazon MGM Studios for a series adaptation. I’ve been in startup exposé withdrawal since the end of last year’s Dropout-WeCrashed-Super Pumped trifecta, so just go ahead and put this straight into my veins.
The Show Will Not Go On
Citing “safety concerns,” an Illinois high school has canceled the school theater’s long-awaited production of The Prom.
“The Prom is a story of four Broadway actors who are reminiscing about their famous lives as they are en route to the small, conservative town of Edgewater, Indiana. They’ve been brought to the community because they are coming to help a lesbian girl who has been banned from bringing her girlfriend to town.“
🤔 Whatever could this be about?
The “It Books” of the Week
It’s not every week that the Venn diagram of the zeitgeist and my personal interests is a circle, but when it is, it’s very exciting. Click to see the it books of the week.