Children's Books discussion

When my children were young, on St. Nicholas Day every year, I gave each of them a beautiful Christmas picture book. (They each got a picture book every year until they were 16.) These are some of my very favorite books. And this year, I wanted to give a copy of The Christmas Knight to a friend who is very much like Sir Cleges. I bought it for my daughter in 1993, so I was sure it would be long out of print. I thought, though, that I might be lucky and find a used copy somewhere. And, oh, my goodness: I did find copies available online. A former library copy was almost $100. Copies in better condition were $500 or more. I found two new copies, for multiple thousands of dollars!

Needless to say, my friend didn't get a copy of The Christmas Knight for Christmas this year.

Has anyone else ever had the experience of discovering a beloved book -- one that's not *that* old, not a medieval manuscript or anything, just a regular book -- is now selling for astronomical prices?

I'll have to think on your specific question.

On a closely related note, I have found that books other people have recommended to me, that were *their* childhood favorites, are unaffordable. For example, I wanted to read An Alien Music (YA SF) but I had to use half.com's wishlist service and wait a long time before an affordable copy was listed. (Right now it starts at $20.)

There seems to be a difficulty in obtaining rights and arranging for reprints of the 'moderately' old books. The original publisher may no longer be interested in the book, but it hasn't gone out of copyright yet, so readers are out of luck.

Some of the first edition Harry Potter books are outrageously expensive.

And Antonia Barber's The Ghosts (1969) have some rather expensive editions as well (a first edition hardcover is selling for over seven thousand dollars on ABE books).

I went to Thrift Books and they have The Christmas Knight listed but not copies available. I too have seen older books selling for a high price. And they're usually in "acceptable" condition. You can on Thrift Books ask to be put on a list when a certain book becomes available.

Right, The Ghosts... I was on the wishlist at half.com for that for awhile. Finally got a copy, a simple mm pb, for a reasonable price (under $5 iirc). Then it turns out I didn't enjoy the story even that much.

My first place to look for books online is Better World Books (http://www.betterworldbooks.com). I like their business model a lot better than I like Amazon's. And I've occasionally found an out-of-print book there when I couldn't find it anywhere else, or for a better price than anywhere else.

But I wish that publishers wouldn't take wonderful books like that out of print. There's clearly a demand for it. And with the current print technologies, they don't have to let it go out of print ever.