The $12 mass market paperback that tore my book club apart

I picked up a cheap copy of The Secret History for our monthly meetup, figuring it was the same text as the fancy edition. Paid $12 at a used store, but the font was tiny and the pages started falling out by chapter three. Half the group couldn't follow the footnotes because they were literally crumbling away. Now I'm stuck wondering if I should just buy everyone the nice paperback for next month's pick, or is that going overboard?

3 comments

3 Comments

terryk1018d ago

Used to think it was overboard buying books for a whole group, but after one bad print run derailed an entire meeting I completely changed my mind. That kind of frustration is real and a few bucks per person is totally worth keeping everyone on the same page.

val94918d ago

That $12 copy sounds like one of those cheap print-on-demand editions from some random publisher. I'd say grab the nice paperback for everyone, it's not overboard when you're already leading the discussion and the group's frustrated.

davis.adam18d ago

Joke's on me, I once bought a used copy thinking I was saving money and it was missing the last three chapters.