Books and Gresham's Law

[Tore Rye Andersen]

Yep, I also read that one, and while I found the plot and style in that 
novel somewhat lacking, I truly enjoyed Perez-Reverte's descriptions of 
books and book-lovers: I can still clearly remember the agony of the old 
collector who had to sell one of his precious books every year to pay for 
food.

At least the paper of both M&D and AtD will probably last more than 60 
years: Fortunately it still seems to be a standard practice to print first 
editions on acid free paper (apart from an unfortunate interlude in the 
80'es: The paper in my first editions of e.g. Wallace's The Broom of the 
System and Vollmann's You Bright and Risen Angels is already an unbecoming 
yellowish brown, and I suspect that one of these days it'll crumble 
completely). But with Gresham's Law on the loose, who knows how long it'll 
take before publishers decide that acid free paper cuts too much into their 
profits?


>From: "Ya Sam" <takoitov at hotmail.com>

>I don't have my copy of AtD yet, but what you're writing here is pretty 
>disturbing, and I do find this sad. This reminds me of the bookbinders' 
>statement from Perez-Reverte's 'El Club Dumas' about the flimsiness and 
>non-longevity of contemporary books as opposed to the antique volumes.
>
>"Excellent paper. Nothing like the cellulose nowadays. Do you know the 
>average lifespan of a book printed today? Tell him Pablo."
>
>"Sixty years," said the brother bitterly, as if it were Corso's fault. 
>"Sixty miserable years."
>
>But if you want to read a book at least five times? Order 2 copies, one for 
>the shelf, another for reading.

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