[simonblack]

Since when? That is the relevant point.

Book prices have gone through periods of low-inflation and of high-inflation over the decades. A paper-back book today will cost you in the mid-to-high twenties of dollars.

When I first started reading paper-back books in the mid 1950s, they cost 30 cents each. Ten years later, in the mid-1960s they had risen to about 45 cents - quite a large jump in percentage terms, but still miles away from today's prices.