Orwell and $500, 000 Books

I received a bit of happy news today. The Canadian publisher has agreed to send me an advance copy of Haruki Murakami’s newly translated, IQ84. It will be released in North America near the end of October. The title is a play on words, the q and nine being pronounced the same way in Japanese. The book is a tribute to Orwell’s famous dystopian novel, and it got me to thinking, I’ve never read Anthony Burgess’ variation on the same theme, so I thought I might pick up a copy. Here’s what I found:


That’s right, a new copy is available for the low, low price of half a mil.

My bad, it’s “almost like new”. But look, 98% of the previous millionaire book-buyers have been satisfied.

There’s an explanation for this, and here it is. Presumably the algorithm jdmediabooks is using also happens to like nice, round numbers.

 

Warren Buffett Doesn’t Think He’s Paying Enough Taxes

And good for him. Sometimes it takes someone with a forensic accounting
degree
to pick up on someone not paying enough taxes, but not this
time. His New York Times op-ed is a breath of fresh air.

OUR leaders have asked for “shared sacrifice.” But when they did the asking, they spared me. I checked with my mega-rich friends to learn what pain they were expecting. They, too, were left untouched.

The point is often made that the majority of American, working-class conservatives consistently vote against their own interests. I don’t think the point is made enough that we ought to vote for what’s right for our fellow citizens as a whole, rather than thinking only of our own interest*. (As an environmentally-minded inividual, I would also include future citizens in that consideration.) If nothing else, we’re all dependent on each other, and economic collapse is bad for everyone in the long run.

Link via Scalzi, whose take on this is worth a read.

*Just so we’re clear, I am indeed Canadian, but like many of my countrymen, I follow US politics as carefully as my own.

Sometimes it takes someone with a <a
href=’http://www.forensicaccountingdegree.org/’>forensic accounting
degree</a> to pick up on someone not paying enough taxes, but not this
time.