Last weekend I had been to my uncle’s place and after lunch he proudly took me to his library(he called it that :P ). Thre were around 40 books and I picked up a few(I had never heard of before) and went through the back cover to see what they were about. My uncle was kind enough to explain to me what some of the books were about.

After a while he told me his prized collection was that of the “Rich Dad Poor Dad” series and that he had bought the whole collection. He even showed me the prize tag which hung at around $11 a piece. I then asked the most common question any regular reader(I know) would ask, “Why, didnt you get this in roadside(pirated) shop?”. His answer made me think…

He said “I do buy from the road side shops but if I plan to use the ideas in a book, then I go ahead and buy the original copy as a thanks to guy who wrote it.” I actually agree with him at the point but how would you know before reading a book that it would help you? I actually look at the price of a book in a bookshop before deciding if I should go ahead and purchase it. If I find the book priced too high I dont feel bad picking up the lower priced unofficial copy.

For eg. I bought the book iCon last week. It was priced at Rs. 1200/- when it was launched and that was coz it was the US edition. I bought the Indian(non-pirated) edition for Rs. 395/-. The pirated one would have been anywhere between 50-100 bucks(which is a clear bargain).

I hv bought a lot of books lately and there is an inclination to go for pirated books, the reason being that I hardly ever read a book more than once. The book then becomes a one time investment and knowing that I would rather buy it a lower price and pick up more books instead of spending so much on one.

I noticed an intresting pattern in the books I have at home. Most of the books I truly loved I had actually paid full price and bought it at a decent bookshop. Maybe I hv a phycological drive to love books I hv paid more for :P or just that I dont think twice about the price when I think I will like reading the book.

Whatever the case I guess I wont be stopping my habit of picking up books without thinking twice about it being pirated or not.