====================
8/24/06

This poverty-stricken senior citizen has taken to mysteries instead of lavish bird books. Mystery novels cost a lot less and provide satisfying emntertainment.

Phil Hotlen
Bellingham, WA
-------------- Original message ----------------------
From: Ian Paulsen <birdbooker at zipcon.net>
> HI Kelly et al:
> NOPE, the waitpeople are right, Birders (and environmentalists in
> general) are cheapskates! As someone who follows the publishing business
> closely (especially natural history books) birders et al. have a
> reputation for being cheap. Until recently publishers were wary of
> printing bird books because they didn't sell. And if you at the market
> today it is still dominated by a few publishers mainly Yale/Princeton (and
> the Britsh company Helm/ACBlack) and Houghton Mifflin. How many birders
> out in tweeterland are old enough to remember Pacific Search magazine? It
> went belly-up and the publisher blamed it on cheap enviro-types. Also
> independant natural history booksellers don't like to carry bird books
> (especially used/out-of-print ones) because they don't sell. Birders go
> on-line and look for the cheapest copies (non-natural history booksellers
> also complain about the internet but that's another story). Gardening
> books sell better than bird books! True we buy expensive optics (but not
> very often) and travel but apparently we feel that being economical will
> help the environment. I feel that the only way to beat this bad reputation
> is to go out and spend (if you can afford to).
>
> --
>
> Ian Paulsen
> Bainbridge Island, WA, USA
> A.K.A.: "Birdbooker"
> "Rallidae all the way!"
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