I am normally just a lurker but am so insensed by this post. It is absolutely wrong for a person to use this group to encourage illegal activity. It is so typical of people who encourage piracy to ignore the value of the work that has gone into producing a work like this. No allowance is made for the effort, skill and intellectual property involved. As with all piracy, what this does is discourage people from going out and putting the effort into producing master new works. Anyone who advocates this type of activity is reducing the chances of major works being produced in the future. If you are not prepared to pay for something - DON'T STEAL IT! Greg Ruckert Nairne, South Australia ----- Original Message ----- From: "Hannon" <othonna@gmail.com> To: "Pacific Bulb Society" <pbs@lists.ibiblio.org> Sent: Thursday, March 29, 2012 7:13 AM Subject: Re: [pbs] The Genus Lachenalia - a new book I'm sure this will be a very useful tome for well-heeled Lachenalia buffs. I believe there is a formula of sorts that says if a book costs so much to photocopy (say, 10c/page) then there is little point in buying the book, especially if it is a technical work. If illustrations can be reasonably well reproduced-- color copying is good these days-- then it may be worth copying it for personal use rather than buying it. This book would cost less than half the asking price by this means, including binding. I write as an ardent book enthusiast who has paid more than the price of this Lachenalia book for some taxonomic works from Springer for example. On the other hand, it makes sense to buy a photocopy of Salter's Oxalis monograph rather than searching out an original. In terms of disseminating knowledge, these retail prices are punitive, regardless of production costs. Dylan Hannon On 28 March 2012 10:43, Nhu Nguyen <xerantheum@gmail.com> wrote: > Hi Lachenalia lovers, > > This to be published book sounds very tempting but look at the price! > > http://kewbooks.com/asps/ForthcomingDetails.asp/… > > Nhu