[djloewen]

I'd like to throw in here that my wife bought her Sony Reader in December of last year, and in the 12 months following she read just over 300 books - yes, almost a book a day. She never puts her reader down. So, if she's paying for all those books and the price goes from $10 to $15 per book, that's an extra $1500/year (total $4500/year) she's spending on books.

The idea that a (new) book has a perceived "value" that should sit at around the $15 mark is, in my opinion, disgusting. It is elitist, and it harms the culture of any country the believes it. Art, and culture is meant to be accessible to people. That's why we have libraries - and with these prices going up, am I ever glad we have them.

Authors want their books to be read, to be accessible to people. Artificially inflating a price to give the product a higher perceived "value" may work in some industries, but when it comes to culture that's just disgusting.

EDIT: and yes, one of the things I love about digital culture is that we have the power to object. If we want culture, and it's being held for ransom, we can just take it anyway. Hell, if it makes you feel guilty, download the book for free and mail the author a $10 bill.