Out of Print Books (Yes, Again)

Drat! I checked out another great knitting book from the library, only to find it's out of print and used copies are going for $82 to $195 on used-book websites like Alibris and Abebooks.

Oh, for the days when I could look up a great out-of-print book on the internet and find it for less than its original selling price, rather than four or five times the original price.

The book is Twined Knitting: A Swedish Folkcraft Technique by Birgitta Dandanell and Ulla Danielsson, the English translation by Robin Orm Hansen.

Here is an interesting tidbit. If you check out the 2007 BookFinder.com Report, issued annually in August, three of the top 10 searched-for books in the Crafts, Hobbies & How-To category (including cooking and gardening, sports and hunting, etc.) are knitting books:

#3 June Hiatt, The Principles of Knitting
#5 Alice Starmore, Aran Knitting
#6 Susanna Lewis, Knitting Lace: A Workshop with Patterns and Projects

Three out of the top ten, in a category that includes the cookbooks. Ever checked out how many cookbooks get churned out in a year? Just look at the size of the cookbook section in a bookstore, used or new.

Aran Knitting has appeared on the list every year starting in 2003.
The Principles of Knitting has appeared on it every year since 2004.
Knitting Lace has appeared every year since 2005.

We knitters really really want our out-of-print knitting books.

Someday someone will finally figure out how to do real print-on-demand and fairly compensate the authors and publishers.

And when that happens, we knitters are going to keep those Xerox DocuTech and IBM InfoPrint POD machines humming day and night. For years.