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Book Review of The Future of the Book edited by Geoffrey Nunberg

Book Review of The Future of the Book edited by Geoffrey Nunberg country. Now there are fewer than 5,000, and this number is falling. Street vendors are also diminish- ing: 20,000 in 1998 against 25,000 in 1989. Among reasons for this shrinkage of retail outlets are: low purchasing power of the general public; the historic low level of book prices under Communists, making small print runs absolutely unprofitable; and the dictation of wholesalers interested only in money- making mass production titles. The book trade today is a mixture of dangerous competition and monopolistic trends. Often my western colleagues ask me about the Russian books-in-print. Well, it exists, but I cannot say that it is a reliable source of infor- mation. It does not include all books in print, and its circulation is rather low (not more than 5,000 copies), so it is not widely used. At least, I do not see it anywhere. Either it is being distributed by some secret society, or the people who publish it – the All-Russian Book Chamber – are not bothered about availability. It is updated only twice a year at best. Often reports on the state of book pub- lishing in various countries lament the sacrifice of quality for quantity. Sadly, Russia today http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Logos Brill

Book Review of The Future of the Book edited by Geoffrey Nunberg

Abel, Richard M
Logos , Volume 9 (2): 75 – Jan 1, 1998
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Publisher
Brill
Copyright
© 1998 Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands
ISSN
0957-9656
eISSN
1878-4712
DOI
10.2959/logo.1998.9.2.75
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

country. Now there are fewer than 5,000, and this number is falling. Street vendors are also diminish- ing: 20,000 in 1998 against 25,000 in 1989. Among reasons for this shrinkage of retail outlets are: low purchasing power of the general public; the historic low level of book prices under Communists, making small print runs absolutely unprofitable; and the dictation of wholesalers interested only in money- making mass production titles. The book trade today is a mixture of dangerous competition and monopolistic trends. Often my western colleagues ask me about the Russian books-in-print. Well, it exists, but I cannot say that it is a reliable source of infor- mation. It does not include all books in print, and its circulation is rather low (not more than 5,000 copies), so it is not widely used. At least, I do not see it anywhere. Either it is being distributed by some secret society, or the people who publish it – the All-Russian Book Chamber – are not bothered about availability. It is updated only twice a year at best. Often reports on the state of book pub- lishing in various countries lament the sacrifice of quality for quantity. Sadly, Russia today

Journal

Logos – Brill

Published: Jan 1, 1998

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