Shelf Awareness comments on George Orwell’s comments on books:

In his 1946 essay “Books vs. Cigarettes,” Orwell observed that the “idea that the buying, or even the reading, of books is an expensive hobby and beyond the reach of the average person is so widespread that it deserves some detailed examination.” After attempting to calculate his book expenditures over 15 years, he estimated that his total reading expenses had been “in the neighborhood of £25 a year,” which was £15 less than his tobacco expenses.

“It is difficult to establish any relationship between the price of books and the value one gets out of them,” Orwell noted, adding that he had “said enough to show that reading is one of the cheaper recreations…. And if our book consumption remains as low as it has been, at least let us admit that it is because reading is a less exciting pastime than going to the dogs, the pictures or the pub, and not because books, whether bought or borrowed, are too expensive.”

orwellphotobkfaceGeorge Orwell in his flat
at 27b Canonbury Square, Islington, North London
in early 1946
photo taken by Vernon Richards

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