I'm just musing a bit here, since I was late to acknowledge the difficulties in this month's slate. The choices mostly seemed like pretty good to excellent reads to me.
Of the eight books nominated this month, only three cost less than $10 and that includes one for $9.99. Different people have different thresholds for how much they're willing to spend, starting with nothing (and there's nothing wrong with that), but I suspect $10 is an upper limit taking in almost everyone and that most aren't willing to go that high. My guess is that the modal limit is about $5 to $6, skewing lower and not higher.
That said, accessibility becomes a factor; that is, how can you get a copy of a book for cheaper or nothing? Almost I'm coming around to Jon's POV, but rest assured, the sky is not falling.
In fact, I wouldn't have a problem getting any of the November choices from OverDrive with the exception of
Sapiens. I already own a few, but those titles also are available to me; others however may not have good OverDrive options. Some don't mind pbook alternatives; for some, that's a dealbreaker. In any case, I'm not seeing a cheap option on
Sapiens. I'm not singling Sapiens out; it's just the extreme example of this issue this month.
Length has already been cited more than once and yay! for Sapiens; it's the third shortest option. I haven't checked back matter on the choices which will undoubtedly be significant in some cases, but there's no denying there are some hefty reads here.
So... where am I going with this? Really just wishing we'd do a better job keeping the end in mind, and this goes for me, too. I enjoy the nomination process; frequently books are brought to my attention which I'd like to read. But I think it's become an end in itself with little thought given to the ensuing discussion and the likelihood of a dynamic conversation. It's a horse race and people move on once it's over. I'm belaboring the point, but no matter how interesting a book is, if it's inaccessible for reasons of price or length there won't be a talk. Some won't mind that, but I think it's a loss. And, I want to emphasize, this isn't just a problem for history month. Last November's discussion of Kafka on the Shore ($12, 500 pages) got two comments.
Mea culpa. I realize now I should have voted for William the Conqueror. Short and free, it might have had people discussing it. I would show up for the discussion for most of the choices; however Sapiens is out of reach and Third Reich is ridiculously long.
Sigh. I know we've been down this road before, but it's frustrating. I love to talk about books.