I made the second edition of An Introduction to Gödel’s Theorems freely available as a downloadable PDF a few days ago (here’s the link again), announcing it on this blog and also on Twitter. And then, because someone also posted the link on Hacker News, the news spread far and wide. The book has now been downloaded over 64 thousand times. Which is just a little bit mad. I’m sure most downloaders didn’t want a 388 page book. Still, as I said before, I guess that it is good to know that the very mention of Gödel’s Theorems produced that much interest!
And now, as promised, there is also a cheap print-on-demand version available from Amazon. US link; UK link. (Find on your local Amazon by using the ASIN identifier B08GB4BDPG in their search field.)
This is a large format book, almost the same page size as the original CUP printing. OK, the bad news is that you don’t get a pretty cover (life is too short), and the binding isn’t quite up to the standards of a quality trade paperback. The printing quality, however, is at least as good as the original version. For anyone who (like me) usually prefers a physical book to reading onscreen, this reprint should be quite satisfactory. And the good news is that while the CUP version was £27.99, this one is just £7.99 in the UK (and comparable prices on other Amazons). So I guess no one can complain too much about that!
I do wonder though about the pricing policy of publishers for student books that have been already published for a number of years (and which have already more than covered their initial fixed costs in publishing). CUP are better than very many: but what would really justify £27.99?
But let’s leave that question hanging. News about Big Red Logic Book no. 2 tomorrow …
Unfortunately, £27.99 doesn’t seem out of line with other books I’d find in the philosophy section of an academic bookshop (a Blackwell’s, say) — and there seems to have been an increase in book prices lately. IGT was closer to £20 not all that long ago, and I’m pretty sure the first edition (at least) was in the mid-teens when it first appeared.
Worse, some prices are absolutely outrageous. Smullyan’s Godel’s Incompleteness Theorems, for example, lists at £205 from OUP — for a print-on-demand book! Even the Kindle version is £123.53
However! Between your books (especially now), the Open Logic texts, and some books rescued by Dover, there’s a good range of logic and mathematical logic books at a reasonable price.
Yes, £27.99 isn’t out of line, and indeed (as I said) CUP are often better than many.
But as you say some (too many?) prices are utterly outrageous. For example, I just checked the price of The Logic Book (a competitor to IFL): it is $133.77. Though you can rent it for one semester for … $48.53. Ludicrous!
Their prices are creeping up too, but yes, Dover are still a Good Thing.
Finally I can buy it! I always wanted to buy the book (i.e., the previous version), but it was too expensive for me. Similarly for IFL.
I hope it’s the one about Gentzen & co.
Sadly not …. one day, perhaps ….