Thursday, December 21, 2006

Nomen est omen

I noticed this book while browsing around the amazon.co.uk web site today:

T. E. Lawrence: Seven Pillars of Wisdom
Paperback, 672 pp.
Dodo Press, 2006
ISBN: 1905432771
RRP: £21.99, amazon.co.uk's price: £20.89

The publisher could hardly choose a better name for themselves. Their unremarkable paperback edition of this classic work is competing against the Tempus edition (£16.00 RRP / £10.56 on amazon.co.uk), the Penguin Classics edition (£10.99 RRP / £7.47 on amazon.co.uk), and, best of all, the Wordsworth edition, which sells for a mere £3.99.

How many people will pass a £3.99 paperback in favor of a £20.89 paperback of the same work? Not many, I bet. I hope this publisher will soon be what its name suggests — dead as the dodo.

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