from Amazon
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Ode to print encyclopedias
I agree with Patriot that the Neft/Cohen layout was by far the best layout of the encyclopedias. I have never liked the phone book layout (listing everyone from A to Z in that order). Neft Cohen instead listed the stats by year-team. In addition, they did show the career line for each player in the A to Z format… but they did it by “era”, which was another brilliant way to show it.
As for electronic and print, and the value of one over the other: it’s clear that print has some value. Sometimes you know exactly what you want and exactly where to find it. I can open up a book, and go right to that page, just on memory. That’s one thing that printed books have over the other forms, the tangible memory. That’s probably why I can remember Bill James’ Baseball Abstract writings from 25 years ago, but not his electronic writings from 25 days ago. As an example, I know exactly on which side of the page he talked about Wade Boggs and some Redsox teammate, and which one of them hit more singles. It’s a photographic snapshot in my mind. Maybe I’m weird like that, that I’m an oddball, and most people don’t have their memories work in that manner.
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As for inferring demand based on posted prices on Amazon, I wouldn’t count on that to mean it’s mostly demand. For example, the first edition of The Book is selling for over 100$. There’s no reason for that, especially since the current edition is a reprint edition. I’m sure it’s some automated pricing scheme that is not that good.