I don’t care who originally said books are a luxury item, if they were speaking about any time after the 1970s when the non-rare used bookstore was invented they were wrong. And really even before then, new books went up in price in the 80s and 90s way past inflation. And as for the time, again wrong, people make the time for what they want to do, anybody that can’t find time to read doesn’t actually read for recreation. It is a simply a false assertion.
Lurid covers were a general rarity anyway. They primarily adorned pulp books, the mainstream have always had mellow covers.
Have it your way. But books are no longer aimed at the “every man” in terms of pricing, content or appearance.
Oh yeah, when the seven volume Rising Up, Rising Down came out the publisher was worried about the $1,100 (I think) price tag. The first pritning sold out almost immdiately. Since then, I’ve been seeing specialty books regularly selling for $600 and $700 in more and more homes of the wealthy along with a lot of normal priced books.